First African American Collegiate Football Game

Livingstone College versus Biddle University

Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC, the birthplace of inter-collegiate football among Negro Colleges has a unique athletic history.  It was a participant in several “first games” and winner of several championships.  Gridiron history at Livingstone College under “thy maples and thy oaks” has had its share of colorful seasons, phenomenal teams and spectacular players.  The “series” history pitted the “Blue Bears” against top Negro college teams along the Eastern Seaboard, with some spine-tingling victories and some dismal defeats.

“The first football game in the United States was played in November, 1869. Rutgers defeated Princeton, playing the game under soccer rules… The game gradually developed into the present American game of football; by 1882 the teams consisted of eleven players each.[1]”

Twenty-three years after the debut of football in America, the first intercollegiate football in America, the first intercollegiate football game among Negro colleges was initiated. On December 27, 1892 on a snow-covered field, Livingstone College met Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University) in this initial contest.

The football eleven was organized in the autumn of 1892 and was composed of J. W. Walker, Captain; W.J. Trent, Mgr.; R. J. Rencher, Henry Rives, C. N. Garland, J. R. Dillard, J. B. A. Yelverton, Wade Hampton, Charles H. Patrick, J. J. Taylor and F. H. Cummings.  It was expedient for the first football team to secure a regulation football and uniforms for practice and for the regular games.  This was the next major accomplishment.  An order was placed for one of the regulation footballs from Spalding’s, each player chipped in to pay for it.  Then the fellows began to work putting cleats on their everyday shoes until after practice, when they would be taken off.  Old clothes were patched and padded up and these constituted the togs (practice) of the first Livingstone varsity football team.  The young women of the Industrial Department made the game uniforms out of 10 oz white ducking cloth.  William J. Trent later stated with a kind of boastful shyness that probably his football uniform was best of all, because at that time he was courting the director of the Sewing Department.

On the 27^th day of December 1892, it was cold, dreary, and snow had fallen to a considerable depth.  In the early stages of the two 45 minute halves, Biddle scored a touchdown, making the score 4-0.  Later in the game when a Biddle player was about to escape the Livingstone defense for another score, Captain Walker of LC tackled him and forced a fumble.  The loose ball was immediately scooped up by the Livingstone right halfback (William J. Trent), who dashed across the goal line for a touchdown.

Due to the heavy blanket of snow, the markings of the field were not so plain and Biddle contended that its ball carrier was tackled out of bounds.  The contention was upheld and the score was disallowed, Biddle winning 4-0.  The umpire of that famous game was the late Mr. Murphy, white law student at the University of North Carolina, who later became a legislator in the State’s Assembly.

Since that time, games between Smith and Livingstone have been more or less a fixture in North Carolina.  After the initial contest among Negro colleges, Livingstone College wrote her gridiron history in numerous tilts.  Each era ahs produced heroes whose feats were recorded in the annuals of the college athletic history.

Benjamin Butler Church graduated from Livingstone College in 1907.  In his senior college year, he was captain of the Livingstone College football team that wore the title: “The Colored College Champions of 1906.” He later returned to the College in 1911 and served as coach and instructor until 1917.  After his tenure of war work with the YMCA and the National Staff of the National Recreation Association, New York, he resumed his coaching and teaching post at LC from 1921-1926.  In the eleven years that he served as coach and teacher, he produced several championship football teams – (1912; 1914; 1915; 1921; 1922; 1923) in the North Carolina Interscholastic Athletic Association.

Championship Years

1912 NCIAA Coach Butler

1914 NCIAA Coach Butler

1915 NCIAA Coach Butler

1921 NCIAA Coach Butler

1922 NCIAA Coach Butler

1923 NCIAA Coach Butler

1928 NCAU  Co-Champions Coach Meek

1960 EIAC Co-Champions Coach Cox

1997 CIAA Coach Abrams

1998 CIAA Coach Abrams

North Carolina Intercollegiate Athletic Association 

Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference  (Formerly NCIAA) 

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association