It’s about to go down on Saturday, Nov 8, when two HBCUs, Johnson C. Smith University and Livingstone College, compete in the Commemorative Classic. This game honors the first HBCU game in history, played 133 years ago.
It started just two days after Christmas, 1892, when Biddle Institute, now Johnson C. Smith University, traveled on segregated rail to Salisbury, North Carolina, to face Livingstone College on a snow-covered field. The teams used a football purchased with student donations, and classmates also sewed their uniforms. Officials kept score using a borrowed playbook, in which Biddle won 5-0 and sparked Black football culture, which is now part of a broader Black cultural phenomenon, including week-long celebrations, tailgating, and battles of the bands.
Formally renamed the Commemorative Classic in 2009, the game now serves as a tribute to the first HBCU football contest ever played, bringing alumni and football fans together to celebrate the two teams that started it all.
“This game is not just where HBCU football began. It is where our story as a conference, a culture, and a community took root,” CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams Parker said in a Livingstone College press release. “Generations of students, athletes, bands, alumni, and families helped build this legacy, and every time Johnson C. Smith and Livingstone take the field, they carry decades of history with them. The first game built the foundation. This game protects it. That is why this rivalry lives on as the Commemorative Classic; a yearly reminder of where Black college football began and who continues to carry it forward.”
Across its 133-year history, Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) has held bragging rights; JCSU went undefeated for nearly 40 years. Livingstone made a comeback in the 90s, winning several. Last year, Livingstone Blue Bears defeated the JCSU Golden Bills with a final score of 15-10.
The game begins at 1 p.m. at George W Gray Field, located inside the Irwin Belk Complex at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. Fans can also catch the game via livestream on YouTube.
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