Jake Gaither’s Last Season and the End of an Era

This chapter chronicles Gaither’s last season as head coach at FAMU. The highlight was FAMU’s first game against a PWI when it defeated the University of Tampa. Additionally, Gaither won his 200th game of his career, making him one of the winningest coaches in college football history. Off the field, 1969 was the last year of segregated high schools in Florida. The federal government ordered the end of the dual education system. The closing of black high schools, and the subsequent firing of teachers and coaches, removed a vital cog of FAMU’s sporting congregation.

Desegregation, Decline, and Black Power

This chapter analyses the effects of FAMU’s struggles in 1964 and 1965 during the opening years of athletic integration in the South. Additionally, the Black Power movement challenged Gaither’s conservatism on racial issues. Gaither and other HBCU coaches pursued playing predominately white colleges as a means to counter the expected effects of desegregation. Gaither believed that open competition would show that FAMU was the best team in Florida.

Championships and Civil Rights

This chapter explores how Black college football and FAMU reckoned with the civil rights movement. Gaither preferred interracial cooperation rather than direct action as a means for racial change. The civil rights movement, beginning with Brown v. Board of Education, and including the bus boycotts of the mid-1950s and the sit-ins of the early 1960s, undermined Gaither’s reputation with activists. Gaither’s opposition to immediate desegregation not only was an attempt to hold on to his powerful football program but also showed an understanding of how integration would perpetuate athletic dominance by predominately white institutions. Gaither’s experiences with structural racism in building Bragg Stadium provided an alternative perspective to the civil rights movement.

The Golden Age of Black College Football Begins

The post-World War II period began the highwater mark for Black college football generally and Florida A&M specifically. Gaither returned to coaching in 1945 after brain surgery. FAMU expanded its sporting congregation through the development of a coaching clinic, which began to place alumni as head coaches at a majority Florida’s segregated high schools. The Orange Blossom Classic moved to Miami, becoming the preeminent black college classic. HBCU student enrollment grew rapidly after the war, allowing public HBCUs to displace private HBCUs as the leading athletic programs. Gaither began to emerge as a leading head football coach through the development of his Split Line-T offense and by utilizing changes to college football substitutions rules to create separate “Blood, Sweat, and Tears” units.

A Double-V Campaign On the Field and Off

During World War II, the FAMU football program faced challenges from the growing war effort, which drafted increasing numbers of faculty, staff, and students. Head Coach William Bell volunteered for services after the 1942 season, leaving the program reeling. Additionally, Gaither was diagnosed with two cancerous brain tumors in the spring of 1942. Gaither and the FAMU football program survived through war’s end.

The Color Line of Scrimmage and Sporting Congregations

This chapter examines the beginnings of college football at HBCUs from the late nineteenth century through the 1930s. Black college football started as a separate institution distinct, yet similar, to the game played at predominately white institutions. This chapter uses Gaither’s early biography to examine how the pieces of the sporting congregation came together to support Black college football.

Introduction

This book tells the history of college football at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through the lens of Alonzo “Jake” Gaither’s playing and coaching career. After World War II, Gaither, as a coach, transformed Florida A&M University (FAMU) into the most dominant Black college football program over the next three decades. FAMU’s winning program was buttressed by the development of sporting congregations, a network of athletes, administrators, coaches, sportswriters, and fans that emerged in the first half of the 20th century. Finally, the growth of Black college football reflected a broader tension in African American higher education between integration and self-determination.

Chasing Ghosts

The epilogue explores the broad changes brought on by integration and the role of television to show how the structural deficiencies of HBCU football undermined competition. The human resources that made up the sporting congregation eroded under the weight and possibilities of integration. FAMU in particular struggled after Gaither’s retirement, going through four coaches in five seasons. Rudy Hubbard finally gained traction, winning the first I-AA national title in 1978. Hubbard’s success was unsustainable, however, because the best African American high school players were now playing for predominately white colleges.

Black Gold

This chapter chronicles the war between the American Football League (AFL) and the NFL and the new opportunities created for HBCU football players. FAMU’s Bob Hayes, who won two gold medals in the 1964 Olympics, was a chief beneficiary. Hayes signed with the Dallas Cowboys in 1965, and quickly became one of the best rookies in professional football.

Florida A&M Develops a Sporting Congregation

This chapter examines the development of Florida A&M’s football program. From its beginnings in 1896 through the early 1930s, FAMU’s football teams were not very good. Ironically, FAMU’s football program improved during the Great Depression to propel the football program forward. Notably, FAMU launched its Orange Blossom Classic football game in 1933. This was followed by the hiring of William Bell as head coach in 1936, and Gaither as an assistant coach in 1937.