BLACK HISTORY FACT THAT HAPPENED ON THIS DATE: 1892-12-27 (1073 hits)
Check out this video from Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina! In 1892, the first Black College Intercollegiate football game was played.
The game was played in the snows of North Carolina, two days after Christmas.
It was between Livingstone College and Biddle College, which eventually changed its name to Johnson C. Smith University.
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.
Documented in the college's newspaper's 1930 edition, team members purchased a regulation football and uniforms, 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.
The official ruled in Biddle's favor, allowing them to keep the 5-0 lead that they had established early on and giving the visitors the victory.
To this day, the rivalry continues between Livingstone College Blue Bears and the Golden Bulls of Johnson C. Smith University. Traditions between other HBCU will always find their football roots planted in the front lawn of Livingstone College.
