Johnson C. Smith Golden Bulls Football Program Returned To Glory In 2025

The last time my beloved alma mater, Johnson C. Smith University, won a CIAA Football Championship was 1969. That's a long time ago by any barometer that you use. I live in another time zone, yet my clock is always on JCSU time.

I have watched, read, and heard about the new Golden Bulls football team over the past few years. My thinking was that there was a new attitude and a new way of doing business.

It was my honor to meet Maurice Flowers, head football coach at JCSU, a few years ago. I interviewed him for a story I did and came away thinking he is a winner. He talked like a winner and exuded a distinctive confidence. Plainly put, he had the "it factor".

I was hooked. So, I tuned in or turned on to find out the score between JCSU and our opponent. Last year was a year that we almost made it. I know the JCSU family was disappointed near and far.

You see, I was a student-athlete at Johnson C. Smith University and was a part of a CIAA Tennis Championship team. I know first-hand the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat because I have been on both sides of that sports equation.

While 2nd place is an outstanding achievement, it's not the championship trophy. Winning is tough, and there is a gear you must shift into to achieve a championship.

The 2025 Johnson C. Smith University Football team is now the champion of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Let's ring the bell and applaud mightily for this wonderful accomplishment.

I have often said that records can be broken, but championships cannot. They will remain with you forever. To be called a CIAA champion is a high honor and must be celebrated. It must be revered.

The football target was on this team's back for the past month. Lose, and they were out of contention. There could be no slip-ups. It had to be winning time each week.

Fayetteville State University wanted to play spoiler, but our character and our resilience stopped them. I believe our team must have said, "The Golden Bulls are in your house, and it’s winning time for us.”

Every member of the Golden Bulls nation was on high alert as we defeated the Broncos. However, we still had more work to do.
My antenna was up because I knew that Livingstone College was our next opponent. We hear the term "win, and you're in," and that was certainly true for us on Saturday, November 8th.

A victory in The Commemorative Classic would send us to the CIAA Championship game. We won.

Virginia Union University will be our foe on Saturday, November 15th. Alumni and friends of JCSU arrived in Durham, NC, to watch the game. Those who couldn't attend watched it on HBCU Go, a television station owned by Byron Allen.

The media made announcements and pronouncements about the significance of this game. The CIAA is the oldest African American athletic conference in America.

Both teams were ranked in the NCAA II college rankings. Pundits opined that, regardless of the outcome, both teams would make the playoffs. We defeated the Virginia Union University Panthers 45-21. Hold high the Gold and Blue as the JCSU Golden Bulls will forever be called CIAA Champions.