Passion and Performance
In the technology-driven 21st century — an era that has given us Facebook, Twitter, the iPOD, e-mail, text messaging, Xbox, web sites, chat rooms and the like — it is comforting to know that some institutions have not completely discarded time-tested concepts of the recent past. Among those entities that still embrace several of the tried, tested and useful precepts of the past are Black College Football, in general, and the Sheridan Broadcasting Network, in particular, currently in its’ 38th year of saluting and sponsoring the SBN Black College All-American team.
This year’s theme — : Honoring Passion, Pride and Performance — obviously is nothing new nor technologically driven. It is truly the basis from which the entire idea germinated more than 120 years ago when Biddle University (later to become Johnson C. Smith University) challenged Livingstone College to the symbiotic pairing of brain vs. brawn, thus giving birth to the sport of Black College football that we have come to know, love and celebrate today.
It is noteworthy that the success ultimately achieved on the field of play never obscured the larger picture of educating and preparing Blacks for life in a society that had no intention of allowing them to participate in the “American Dream.” Remember, scarcely three decades had passed since emancipation when Biddle and Livingstone kicked it off in a cow pasture in North Carolina. Moreover, the country was not all that far removed from the mindset that educating people of color
was viewed as a crime, an unforgivable transgression. Thus, the very existence of institutions of higher learning for Blacks in the midst of this atmosphere of negativity was an achievement of immense proportions.
In Michael Hurd’s compilation, Black College Football: One Hundred Years of History, Education and Pride (1892-1992), retired Livingstone graduate Paul Collins said it best. “Black colleges perpetuate what the heritage is all about,” noted Collins, a former sociology professor at Cal State-Hayward and former standout basketball coach and assistant football coach at Wiley College.
“What you are, or are not, will be enhanced in that situation. Those kinds of relationships are not available at bigger colleges. You can’t get involved with anybody like you.”
This marriage between athletics and academics, and the inherent need for such a union, was further crystallized in Hurd’s landmark documentation of Black College football by Dr. Arthur Thomas,
president of Central State (Ohio) University. “We are among the few groups of people in the United States who are willing to entrust the training of our best and brightest to others,” he noted. “The Catholics have Notre Dame, the Irish have Boston College, the Jewish people have Miami University and the Mormons have Brigham Young. In addition to attracting the top scholars among their respective groups, it is interesting to note that each of these institutions boast
athletic programs that consistently rank among the best in the country.
“We, as African-Americans, must develop ways to attract and retain our best—-whether they be athletes or scholars—-to our HBCUs.”
A manuscript the size of the voluminous War and Peace could be written of the people associated with Black College football and the SBN All-America teams who have exemplified this proclivity for pride, passion and performance described by Dr. Thomas.
With apologies to the many who will undoubtedly be overlooked in this discussion (and it must be stated that the omissions are the result of space and not of the head or heart),
Many fans of the National Football League remember Ken Riley as one of the outstanding defensive backs from 1969-1983. This product of Florida A&M was twice chosen All-Pro (1975 and 1976) and completed his career with 65 interceptions, at the time of his retirement the fourth highest total in league history. But, few realize that as a member of the Rattlers Riley was named Who’s Who in Small Colleges and was a nominee for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
“We competed in the classroom like we did on the field,” said Riley, who in 1986 became head coach of his alma mater. “Everybody wanted to make good grades.” While he didn’t pursue the Rhodes Scholarship, he acknowledged that “it was an honor to be nominated.” With that kind of brain matter it is small wonder he had little difficulty dissecting NFL quarterbacks.
Few would doubt that as a member of the four-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers John Stallworth took care of business on the football field. By the time he called it a career in 1988 the long-strider from Alabama A&M University held nearly every team receiving record imaginable, ultimately paving his way to the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Among the most memorable of his 537 career receptions is the game-winning, acrobatic, over-the-shoulder 73-yard gem versus the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV.
Sheridan Broadcasting Network owner Ron Davenport once recounted a conversation he had with Stallworth at the All-American banquet in New York back in 1973 about the feeling of being recognized by the media giant, then held under the banner of the Mutual Black Network. “I remember talking with him back then and he told me just how important an event it was to him,” said Davenport, who would take over complete ownership of MBN and rename it SBN.
However, not lost on the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, native amidst the dizzying heights of gridiron glory was life after football, often the achilles of many a successful athlete. Several years prior to his retirement Stallworth put his BS and MBA degrees to work, starting Madison Research Corporation.
James (Shack) Harris and Doug Williams are a pair of Black College All-American products who have parlayed on-field success — in the face of odds real or perceived — into post-career importance in the game that propelled them into off-field prominence. Both prospered under the tutelage of the legendary Eddie Robinson, teacher/coach/mentor extraordinaire, and proponent of utilizing academics and athletics as a sure means of advancement.
“America offers more opportunities to young people than any other country in the world,” said Robinson, the architect of Grambling’s unprecedented gridiron achievements. “But opportunity comes at a price. You have to be prepared. If opportunity comes and you’re not prepared, you can’t have it.”
The lesson was not lost on Harris.
“When I first went to Grambling my focus was on getting a college degree,” he said, acknowledging that his parents weren’t wholeheartedly behind him playing football. But money was tight. “So I
had to get a scholarship.”
A quarterback in Grambling’s run-oriented offense, Harris was drafted in 1969 by the Buffalo Bills in the eighth round. (Prarie View’s Charlie Brackens had been the only previous signal caller from a Black college drafted, taken by Green Bay.) Picked up by the Los Angeles Rams in 1973, Harris led them to the NFC West title in 1974-75, adding a Pro Bowl MVP award in ’75.
However, the big challenge came after his playing days had ended when it became apparent that he wanted to get into the administrative end of the NFL.
“Initially I couldn’t get a job, that was disappointing,” said Harris, whose patience, poise and intelligence led to a position as assistant general manager with the New York Jets. He later worked as vice president of player personnel for the Jacksonville Jaguars and is currently holds a front office position with the Detroit Lions. He is proof that success, as someone once pointed out, is 10-per cent inspiration and 90-per cent preparation. A well-learned lesson from Coach Robinson.
Wiliams, another Robinson protégé, was instrumental in dispelling the long-held belief that Black quarterbacks were incapable of winning Super Bowl titles when he led the Washington Redskins to an
overwhelming 42-10 victory over the John Elway-led Denver Broncos in 1988. In Super Bowl XXII, Williams put on a record-setting performance throwing four touchdowns in an astonishing second quarter outburst that should have obliterated all doubts concerning the capabilities of ebony signal callers in pressure-packed situations. He recently returned to Grambling as the Tigers head coach after after being a personell executive for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team he dragged
from the ranks of NFL expansion to respectability before moving on to Washington.
It’s a good bet that if any of the aforementioned were asked to what they attribute their success, no doubt they each would mention the training they received at their respective HBCUs somewhere in the conversation.