According to The History of Sports at Tuskegee by Ross Owen, Tuskegee Institute first fielded a football team on January 1, 1894 with a loss against Atlanta University, 10-0. Clarence Matthews was the first football coach. Charles W. Wood was the second coach for Tuskegee. The first undefeated season for Tuskegee occurred in 1904, followed by another undefeated season in 1905. Earnest T. Attwell followed Wood as the head coach. Gordon Thomas was coach from 1913-1914 and won a SIAC championship in 1914. In 1913, Tuskegee was a founding member of the Southeastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Coach James Gayles served as Athletic Director and Head Coach from 1917-1921 and won a SIAC championship in 1917. Victor Turner was the Head Coach in 1922.
TUSKEGEE FOOTBALL, 700+ WINS AND COUNTING???
TUSKEGEE FOOTBALL, 700+ WINS AND COUNTING???
September 17, 2021
A.D. DREW | Black College Sports Network
ATLANTA, GA. (September 17, 2021) -- The 137-year-old football program at Tuskegee University entered the 2021 football season, unofficially, with 718 victories. Tuskegee owns the distinction of being the winningest Black College football program in history, and owns 13 Black College National Championships (4th place all-time). The debate begins when calculating exactly how many wins the Golden Tigers own. While the NCAA lists the Golden Tigers, officially, with 696 wins on the gridiron, through some research, I have discovered five additional victories not included in the current NCAA record book, but listed in other places on the www.ncaa.org website (which is the official recorder for NCAA statistics).
Tuskegee entered the 2021 season with 696 official wins on the football field. When taking a deeper dive into the NCAA record books, I discovered that there are four forfeit wins that are not included in the 696 wins on record. Before the NCAA automated it’s records somewhere between 1999 and 2001, games forfeited (due to rules violations, ineligible players, etc) were subtracted from the violator’s win total, but not added to the offended school’s win total. Instead, wins gained due to forfeit were only noted by footnotes on the team’s record. Tuskegee has earned four forfeits wins in its history, include a win over Alabama State in 1976 (lost 29-14 on the field), forfeits versus Morris-Brown in 1980 (score unknown) and 1981 (lost 14-6 on the field), and 1987 versus Alabama A&M (lost 10-7 on the field). There was one additional victory against a George Mason club team in 2007. These five victories not accounted for in the NCAA record books, raises the Tuskegee victory total to 701 and counting. There are another 20 games that Tuskegee has played against armed forces teams between 1917 and 1977, going 17-2-1. These additional games bring the Tuskegee record to 718: 696 collegiate victories, 4 forfeit wins, 1 club victory, and 17 victories against armed forces teams.
Tuskegee enters week 3 with an 0-2 record. Given the tough time that Tuskegee has had offensively, it could be tough for Tuskegee to pick up the four victories in the remaining eight games to get to 700 victories on the field. Tuskegee will be favored against Edward Waters (week 3 opponent), Clark-Atlanta (week 5), and Central State (week 7). Morehouse is another team that the Golden Tigers can pick-up a win against, having won 7 of the last 8 versus the Maroon Tigers. Tuskegee’s remaining four opponents will be tough with two FCS opponents (Alabama A&M, week 4 and Alabama State, Thanksgiving), and two SIAC foes in Lane (week 8, homecoming) and Kentucky State (week 9).
Cleve Abbott took the reins from 1923-1954 and became the winningest head coach in Tuskegee history, going 203-96-28. Under Abbott, the Golden Tigers won SIAC championships in 1924-1933, 1936, and 1944. Tuskegee was crowned the Black College National Champion in 1924-1927, 1929, and 1930. During Abbott's time at Tuskegee, the Golden Tigers once won 46 consecutive games. Alumni Athletic Bowl, the current home for Tuskegee football, known now as Cleve L. Abbott Memorial Alumni Stadium, was built in 1924, and was considered state-of-the-art for its time.
Tuskegee Institute did not win another SIAC championship until 1974, this time under the leadership of Haywood Scissum. Scissum, a Tuskegee alumnus, coached the Golden Tigers from 1970-1980, going 65-49-1. After over a 20-year drought, Rick Comegy got Tuskegee (now a university) back to their winning ways with a 90-26 record (3rd all-time for Tuskegee) from 1996-2005, and won SIAC championships from 1998-2001, and 2004-2005. Comegy’s teams were named Black College National Champions from 2000-2002 and 2005.
Current Tuskegee Head Coach, Willie Slater, took over in 2006 and has continued the Tuskegee winning tradition, capturing the SIAC crown in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012-2015 while winning Black College National Championships in 2007 and 2015. Slater is the second winningest coach in Tuskegee history and the only coach beside Abbott to reach 100 victories with Tuskegee University, posting a 118-41 record.
Tuskegee’s two biggest rivals have been Morehouse and Alabama State. The series with Atlanta Baptist College began in 1902 but another game between the two schools would not be played until 1907. Beginning in 1908, Atlanta Baptist College changed its name to its present name of Morehouse College. The rivalry was played every year from 1907-1917, then again in 1919. The series was not played from 1920-1922, in 1929, or in 1934-1935. The pandemic of 2020 was the first time the two institutions did not meet since 1936. Beginning in 1936, the annual Tuskegee-Morehouse Classic was played in Columbus, GA until being moved to Birmingham, AL for the 2020 season (cancelled due to the pandemic, 2021 will be the first meeting in Birmingham). Tuskegee leads the series 73-28-7.
The rivalry with Alabama State Teachers College (currently Alabama State University) and Tuskegee Institute dates back to 1901. According to The History of Sports at Tuskegee by Ross Owen, the first event held for Negros at Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, AL was the football game between these two institutions on November 14, 1924. In 2021, these two schools will meet for the 104th time, this time on the campus of Alabama State University, with Tuskegee owning a 63-33-4 advantage.
The Golden Tigers have had 23 players drafted into the NFL. Multiple players have been drafted in 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, and 2002. In 1969, there were five Golden Tigers selected by the NFL: George Irby-RB, New York Giants (8th Round), Cecil Leonard-DB, New York Jets (8th), Fritz Latham-OT, St. Louis Cardinals (15th), James Lowe-WR, Cleveland Browns (16th), and Ralph Jenkins-DB, Kansas City Chiefs (17th). Kenneth Woodard, a 10th round draft pick of the Denver Broncos in 1982, and current football analyst for the Tuskegee Digital Network, is the only Golden Tiger to appear in a Super Bowl (Denver, 1986). In the early 2000s, Tuskegee was defensive back university for HBCUs with three defensive backs drafted within two years: Roosevelt Williams, 2002 (3rd round, Chicago Bears), Drayton Florence, 2003 (2nd round, San Diego Chargers), and Frank Walker, 2003 (6th round, New York Giants). Harry Williams was the last draft pick of the Golden Tigers in the NFL in 2005 (7th round, New York Jets).
As Tuskegee closes in on victory 700 on the field, let’s cherish the history of this storied program and the dominance that the Golden Tigers have had: 33 SIAC championships, 25 postseason appearances, 13 Black national championships.
Sources: goldentigersports.com, The History of Sports at Tuskegee by Ross Owen, ncaa.org, NCAA Division II Football Records, blackcollegehalloffame.org, tud1explore.com
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