The only two cities in America that have two very successful college football programs are Los Angeles and Baton Rouge.
When people think of Baton Rouge they think of the LSU Tigers and the historic Tiger Stadium, affectionately known as “Death Valley” to the LSU faithful and college football fans across the country.
However, most people don’t realize that there is another college program that is considered a power in their own right. Southern University has a college football program that has plenty of history that not a lot of colleges can claim, no matter how big or how small.
Southern is a historically black college that was founded when Jim Crow was alive and thriving. For a lot of potential black college students in Louisiana during that time, it was one of the few places they could go and get a college education.
Southern has won nine black college national championships and 19 conference championships. The Jaguars have sent over 70 players into the NFL, with three of those players having been enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
If Southern were in the SEC, it would be tied fifth with having the most pro football hall-of-famers as only Alabama, LSU, Arkansas and Georgia have more. Tennessee is the only school tied with the Jaguars as the Volunteers also have three, but they also had less than Southern until Peyton Manning was inducted last year.
Southern is only one of two HBCUs to have a game be played annually on national TV. Southern, along with its in-state rival Grambling, play in the annual Bayou Classic. Although they first played each other in 1932, Southern and Grambling have played in the Bayou Classic on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in New Orleans since 1974. Starting in 1991, it has been broadcast on NBC every year. It is also the only NCAA FCS football game to be shown on broadcast television.
Southern became a powerhouse under then-head coach Ace Mumford. Mumford came to Southern’s attention when he was the head coach at Texas College. After Mumford led Texas College to a sound victory over the Jaguars one year, a Southern dean accused players from Texas College of stealing. Mumford then made his players get off the team bus and display their personal belongings until the stolen items could be found and returned.
A known perfectionist, Mumford wouldn’t stop practice until he felt like his team got the play right. Under Mumford’s direction, the Jaguars ran a well-balanced running and passing attack from the T-formation, a popular formation back then. The T-formation is based on quickness and maneuverability rather than physicality and power. Legendary white coaches such as Frank Broyles and Bear Bryant were known to have visited Southern to discuss football strategies with Mumford.
Mumford was also instrumental into helping bridge the racial gap. In 1948, Southern became the first HBCU to compete against a predominately white institution in the Fruit Bowl. In that game, Southern defeated San Francisco State 30-0 to finish the season 12-0, a single-season win-loss record that has not been surpassed by another HBCU since.
From 1936 to 1961, Mumford had a record of 179-61-13. Mumford also won five black college football national championships and 11 conference championships. He was also 8-1 against Grambling along with holding a winning record over legendary Grambling Head Coach Eddie Robinson, going 5-1.
“He beat me so often, I thought I had stolen something,” Robinson once said.
Southern renamed its stadium after Mumford in 1992.
The Jaguars also had major success under head coach Pete Richardson from 1993 to 2009. Richardson went 169-76-1 while at Southern, leading the Jaguars to four black college national championships and five conference championships. His 2003 black college national championship team even had a joint parade in Baton Rouge with LSU as they had both won a national championship in the same year.
Southern and LSU will square off in Tiger Stadium at 6:30 p.m. in what will be a historic matchup. Even though these two teams are in the same city, they have never faced each other. This is supposed to be the biggest game of the year to a lot of people because of its anticipation and the amount of revenue this game will bring in as tickets have already sold out.
Give Them Their Flowers: The significance of the Southern Jaguars football program
September 8, 2022
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