Tom Archdeacon: Central State, other HBCU football programs on the rise
Sep. 2—WILBERFORCE — He hopes it will be a weekend to remember.
"This probably will be one of the greatest experiences in their lives," Kevin Porter, the new Central State football coach said about his Marauders players, who open the season against Winston-Salem State in Sunday afternoon's Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic in Canton.
"This opportunity has pushed our kids to go harder and faster in (preseason) practices. They know it's a pretty big deal not just for them, but for the university, too."
Over the next three days, CSU players will:
—Be on national television twice. Friday morning in Canton, they will be on the ESPN talk show "First Take" with its foghorn host, Stephen A. Smith, a Winston-Salem grad who is scheduled to get a jersey on air from the Rams team.
In response, CSU is giving co-host Molly Qerim a Marauders' jersey that has her name printed across the back.
Then Sunday at 4 p.m. the game will be broadcast live on the NFL Network from Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
—When they tour the Black College Football Hall of Fame, which is housed inside the Pro Football Hall of Fame which they'll also explore, they'll not only learn about HBCU legends like Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Michael Strahan and Shannon Sharpe, but also CSU greats like two-time NFL All Pro Hugh Douglas, three-time Super Bowl champ Erik Williams and Billy Joe, the NFL running back and Super Bowl champ who coached the Marauders to two of their three national titles in the 1990s and was named the NAIA Coach of the Year.
—They'll take part in a few of the myriad events that make up the Classic and turn it into something of a cultural festival or "homecoming," as Porter put it.
From now through Sunday, the Classic and the city of Canton are hosting concerts, a red-carpet event, community celebrations, an interfaith service, business symposiums, a Habitat for Humanity day of service, a tailgate gathering and, of course, the battle of the bands, pitting Winston Salem's Red Sea of Sound against CSU's Invincible Marching Marauders.
—"Hopefully, though, we'll keep the main thing the main thing," said Porter. "Our focus is the football game. That's why we're here."
The CSU team — which underwent a complete makeover after last season's 1-9 fiasco — has 65 new players and hopes this is the first step in making Marauder football relevant again after over two decades of decline.
Some of the same things going on a CSU are happening at Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the nation.
A number of HBCUs are seeing an increase again in Black student enrollment. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 18 percent of Black students in the nation were enrolled at HBCU's in 1976, but the figure dropped to 8 percent in 2014. Now it's about 10 percent and HBCU's produce 20 percent of all Black graduates.
There are many reasons for the uptick.
There's the realization of all the famous HBCU grads, people like Vice President Kamala Harris, Oprah Winfrey, Stacey Abrams, Spike Lee, Toni Morrison, Taraji P. Henson, Erykah Badu, Alice Walker and Samuel L. Jackson.
There's the Black Lives Matter movement which focused interest on the shared experiences of Black people who would be part of the often-nurturing majority at an HBCU.
And when it comes to football, there's been the arrival of several new coaches with NFL resumes.
After an All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) career as a defensive back at Auburn, Porter played five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and then went to the New York Jets and London Monarchs of NFL Europe.
Winston Salem coach Robert Massey played nine seasons in the NFL and a year ago Tennessee State hired Eddie George, the Heisman Trophy winning running back from Ohio State who played nine seasons in the NFL and was a four-time Pro Bowler.
The biggest name to join the HBCU coaching ranks was "Prime Time" Deion Sanders — now Coach Prime — who two seasons ago took over the moribund program at Jackson State following his Hall of Fame career in the NFL that saw him become the only man to play in the Super Bowl (he won two with Dallas) and the World Series.
After an abbreviated COVID season in 2020, he led Jackson State to 11 victories and a Southwestern Athletic Conference title last season and was named the FCS Coach of the Year.
He also helped other HBCU programs. His influence enabled Mississippi Valley State to get a new practice field and Alcorn State to get athletic trainer. And he pushed for HBCUs to get better financial deals from promoters when the participate in the many Black football classics that occur each season.
Porter said a real boon for HBCU programs has been the initiatives orchestrated by the Black College Football Hall of Fame co-founders Doug Williams and James Harris.
In 1969, with the AFL's Buffalo Bills, Harris became the first Black player in pro football to start the season at quarterback.
Williams was the first Black quarterback to both start and win a Super Bowl when he guided the Washington Redskins to a 42-10 rout of Denver in Super Bowl XXII in 1988.
"They are two pioneers who both can from HBCUs," Porter said. "And now they've pushed an agenda to get student athletes in front of NFL scouts with an HBCU combine. They've done the same thing when they started an HBCU all-star game, The Legacy Bowl."
As for the Hall of Fame Classic, Porter said it brings great exposure not only from the outside world to HBCUs and what they have to offer, but it gives current HBCU players a link to their past:
"It's our job to expose this legacy to them and help them understand what it means."
NFL connections
Porter grew up in Warner Robbins, Georgia, not far from Fort Valley State, the HBCU where his sister Shondrille went.
He went to Auburn, where he was voted to the All-Century team and in 1988 became a third round pick of the Chiefs, where he would start 55 of the 76 games he played in.
After a 21-year coaching career that took him to several arena football league teams and smaller colleges, he took over at CSU last Christmas Eve.
He talked about the expertise and the connections NFL players can bring to the job.
That was evident at Tennessee State, where Eddie George's friendship with another former Buckeye, new Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, has facilitated an unlikely game between their two schools.
Next season TSU opens its season at Notre Dame and along with a hefty appearance fee, it gets national exposure from the NBC-televised game.
When Sanders took over at Jackson State, he used his influence with the CEO of Walmart to get the Tigers' a new practice field. He partnered with Magic Johnson, who owns a food and facility management company, to fund a new dining hall for the team and got Michael Strahan to provide the team with new suits from his clothing line.
New commitment to football
Porter is not the first CSU coach to have played in the NFL.
E.J. Junior, who guided the program from 2009-2013, went from being an All-America linebacker at Alabama to a first-round draft pick who spent 13 seasons with four teams in the NFL and twice was named to the Pro Bowl.
But he went just 9-45 with the Marauders.
Since the program was relaunched in 2005 — after shutting down eight seasons for financial and other reasons — the Marauders have lost 116 of 156 games. Porter is the seventh head coach in that span.
Last season was a low point. New head Bobby Rome resigned after six games and veteran assistant George Ragsdale took over for the final four games. The Marauders went 1-9, were outscored 379-116 and lost the season finale, 63-0, to rival Kentucky State.
Thanks in part to CSU president Dr. Jack Thomas, once an HBCU track athlete at Alabama A&M, and Marauders athletics director Tara Owens, who is headed to NCAA Division I Maryland Eastern Shore after Sunday's Hall of Fame Classic, Central State has shown a new commitment to football.
Last year a turf field was installed in McPherson Stadium and since then, the locker room, team meeting room and coaches' offices have all been renovated. A new weight room is coming.
Porter said the team had 60 players for spring football drills and only 30 of them continued on with the program. He's brought in some 30 freshmen and 35 transfers.
One of the biggest things he tried to do is change the culture. While he's added new rules — including no hats in the building and no cell phones in team meetings — he's also tried to build a bridge to old times when more than the band was "Invincible" and the Marauders won three national titles in a six-year span.
He believes that eventually will translate to future success.
"That's why this first game has a lot of significance for us," he said. "We want to be able to show the university community that the program is on the rise and we are getting back to the tradition of the program."
He hopes it will be a weekend to remember.
