Preserving History & Legacies
Xavier Revives Gold Rush Baseball
Xavier University of Louisiana announced the return of the baseball program that had been discontinued in 1960.
Established in 1925 by St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, their first organized sport was football.
In former years, they were competitive in other NAIA sports…men’s and women’s basketball, track and field and tennis.
The baseball and softball teams will begin to compete in the 2020-21 academic year.
The softball team will be the only active intercollegiate program
in the Crescent City and will compete as a member of the NAIA and the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference for regional and national honors. Women’s indoor track and field and a new co-ed competitive cheer program will debut in the 2019-20 season which will bring their intercollegiate teams to 13 in 2020-21.
See Notable Alumni | The Championship Seasons
Otis Washington,one of the first XULA baseball football stars.
“The Great Willie Brown” 1940 -2019
At his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction, his old coach and friend Al Davis introduced him as the “Great Willie Brown.”
Coming from the hierarchy of the Oakland Raiders, it was the last honor to be bestowed on one of the football legends from Grambling State. Brown’s career did not start out with the hype given to today’s high school prospects or college can’t miss stars.
Brown was born December 2, 1940 in Yazoo City, Mississippi. He graduated from Taylor High School and accepted an offer to play at Grambling State University for the fabled head coach Eddie Robinson, who was gaining a reputation for developing future professional talent.
He would not only play in the pro leagues (AFL, NFL), but joined a long line of Tiger legends who became All-Pros and Hall of Famers.
Ironically, Brown went undrafted in 1963 after a stellar college career with the Tigers. The Houston Oilers of the American Football League signed and cut him from the team during training camp. Not to be deterred, he signed with the AFL’s Denver Broncos and by the middle of his rookie season, he had earned the right to start in the Broncos secondary. READ MORE
NOVEMBER CELEBRATIONS
This Month in Black College History
1901 Grambling State University opened as the Colored Industrial and Agricultural School…founded by the North Louisiana Colored Agriculture Relief Association in 1896. Charles P. Adams was the first president…1924 MAGIC CITY CLASSIC The first football game between Alabama A&M and Alabama State became an annual tradition in post-war 1945 at Legion Field in Birmingham…1928 FIRST BLACK COLLEGE HOMECOMING GAME was played between Howard University and Virginia Union University…1978 FLORIDA A&M RATTLERS won the first NCAA Div. 1-AA Football Championship with a 35-28 victory over UMass…The Rattlers had a 12-1 SIAC conference record led by head coach Rudy Hubbard…
CATCH THE LATEST PODCAST
Join Host Gil McGregor as he welcomes Dereck Whittenburg, the leader of the 1983 NC State Wolfpack championship team. They discussed the importance of receiving an education, and The Dereck Whittenburg Foundation.
The King of Baltimore
The Coppin State University roadmap began on the strip – Pennsylvania Avenue in 1900, which was the epicenter of Black culture in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1978, Ron “Fang” Mitchell was hired as the men’s basketball coach and in 1993, they had the rest of the college basketball world asking, “Coppin who?” Read more…
Al Attles Joins Naismith Hall of Fame
A North Carolina A&T standout point guard, Al Attles had a 11-year NBA career. He averaged 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 711 regular-season games and currently ranks fifth on the Warriors all-time games played list (711). Attles spent his entire 23-year NBA career with the Philadelphia and Golden State Warriors . He coached the Golden State Warriors 1974-75 championship and still holds the record as the winningest coach in Warriors history. See Black College Naismith members
