Black College Football Celebrates 130 Years

The first Black College Intercollegiate football was played between Biddle College (John C. Smith University) and Livingstone College on December 27, 1892.

The first Black College Intercollegiate football was played between Biddle College (John C. Smith University) and Livingstone College on December 27, 1892.  

The Livingstone Bears were formally organized in the fall of 1892. The team included J.W. Walker (captain), W.J. Trent (manager), R.J, Rencher, Henry Rives, C. N, Garland, J. R. Dillard, J.B.A. Yelverton, Wade Hampton, Charles H Patrick, and J.J. Taylor, and F.H. Cummings. As documented in the college's newspaper's 1930 edition, team members purchased a regulation football and uniforms, and the players equipped their street shoes with cleats, taking them off after practice.   

The young women of the school's industrial department made the players' uniforms for the first game. The teams played two 45-minute halves on Livingstone's front lawn. W.J. Trent scored Livingstone's only touchdown on a fumble recovery. By then, the snow had covered the field's markings, and Biddle argued that the fumble was recovered out of bounds. 

(Courtesy AAREG)

Biddle won the contest 5-0.

In 1956, an athletic marker was erected at Livingstone in honor of the historic game.

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