Black College Football Celebrates Its Historic First Game
The first intercollegiate football game between two historically black colleges and universities, Biddle College (now Johnson C. Smith University) and Livingstone College, was played 131 years ago 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, 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, a plaque commemorating the historic game was erected in Livingstone.