December 27, 1892: The Birth of Black College Football

A modern game between Livingstone (left) and Smith

December 27, 1892: A college football game is played in Salisbury, North Carolina. Livingston College hosts Biddle University, of Charlotte, North Carolina, 41 miles to the southwest.

Based on information currently available, this is believed to have been the 1st football game between two schools that would now be called "historically black colleges and universities," or HBCUs. It is known as "The Birth of Black College Football."

The game was set up between two friends, Charles Shute of Biddle and William J. Trent of Livingstone. The former school had been playing on what would now be called an intramural level for 2 years. When Shute learned that Livingston was starting a football team, he contacted Trent, and the game was set up.

A rare snowstorm had hit the Carolinas over the Christmas holiday, and the site chosen for the field, a converted cow pasture in what is now Livingstone's front campus, had to be cleared of 5 inches of snow.

Apparently, the experience mattered: Biddle won, 4-0. Under the scoring system in use at the time, that's one touchdown to none. Under today's scoring, presuming they made their extra point, it would be 7-0. The name of the scoring player was not recorded. Nor was an estimate of the attendance.

Biddle University was named for the Biddle family of Philadelphia, an "old-money" family involved in banking, which had donated money to start the school in 1867. In 1921 to 1922, Jane Berry Smith donated funds to the school, to build a theological dormitory, a science hall, a teachers' cottage, a memorial gate, and an endowment in memory of her late husband, Johnson C. Smith, a Pittsburgh businessman and a member of the Presbyterian Church, with which Biddle was affiliated. In 1923, in recognition of this, the school's board of trustees renamed the school Johnson C. Smith University.

Trent went on to become not just the president of Livingstone, but its longest-serving president, and the last surviving player from the game, on either side.

Livingstone College was founded in 1879, affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was founded in 1879 as Zion Wesley Institute, named for Zion, another name for Israel; and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. In 1887, it was renamed for Dr. David Livingstone, the famous Victorian-era Scottish physician and missionary in Africa.

Both the Smith Golden Bulls and the Livingstone Blue Bears now compete in NCAA Division II. Their rivalry continues as fellow members of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), and their annual game is named the Commemorative Classic.

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December 27, 1892 was a Tuesday -- then as now, an unusual day for a football game, at any level. There appear to have been no other scores on this historic day: For most college football teams, the season ended on Thanksgiving or earlier; baseball was out of season; hockey was all-amateur; and basketball had only been invented 1 year earlier.

April 25, 1944: The United Negro College Fund Is Founded

April 25, 1944: The United Negro College Fund is founded by a group of prominent African-American educators. It is among the most successful fundraising organizations in American history.

Those educators included William J. Trent, an economist; Frederick D. Patterson, a veterinarian then serving as President of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which had famously been founded and run by Booker T. Washington; and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women. Both Trent and Bethune were members of the advisory group that became known as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet."

The founded the UNCF as a nonprofit that united college presidents to raise money collectively through, as Trent put it, an "appeal to the national conscience." As the first executive director from the organization's start in 1944 until 1964, Trent raised $78 million for historically Black colleges so they could become "strong citadels of learning, carriers of the American dream, seedbeds of social evolution and revolution."

Mrs. Bethune lived until 1955, long enough to see a school she'd founded in Daytona Beach, Florida become known as Bethune-Cookman College, not Bethune-Cookman University. Patterson lived until 1988, Trent until 1993.

In 1956, with his eye on the Presidency and needing to boost his credentials on civil rights, Senator John F. Kennedy donated the money from his book Profiles in Courage to the UNCF.

In 1972, the UNCF adopted as its motto the maxim "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." This maxim has become one of the most widely recognized slogans in advertising history. The motto, which has been used in numerous award-winning UNCF ad campaigns, was created by Forest Long, of the advertising agency Young & Rubicam, in partnership with the Ad Council. A lesser-known slogan the UNCF also uses, in reference to its intended beneficiaries, points out that they're "not asking for a handout, just a hand."

Beginning in 1980, singer Lou Rawls began the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars telethon to benefit the UNCF. The annual event, now known as An Evening of Stars, consists of stories of successful African-American students who have graduated or benefited from one of the many historically black colleges and universities and who received support from the UNCF. The telethon featured comedy and musical performances from various artists in support of the UNCF's and Rawls' efforts. By the time of Rawls' death in 2006, the event had raised over $200 million in 27 shows.

In 2008, reflecting shifting attitudes toward the word "Negro" in its name, the UNCF shifted from using its full name to using only its initials, releasing a new logo with the initials alone and featuring their slogan more prominently. Sometimes, it is referred to as simply "The United Fund."

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April 25, 1944 was a Tuesday. Dancer Len Goodman, famed as a judge on the TV show Dancing with the Stars, was born that day. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-2 at Yankee Stadium.

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 in 12 innings at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers, the team that would desegregate the major leagues 3 years later, beat the Boston Braves, 11-3 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 5-4 at in 14 innings Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.