The Black Football Crisis
Reforming HBCU Football before Its Golden Age, 1912-1932
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3606185 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marvin Chiles, Marvin T Chiles (0000-0002-1003-0460, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 109 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 417-447 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1548-1867 • E-ISSN: 2153-5086 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/727591 |
| OpenAlex | W4402768771 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
This article examines the controversies that propelled Black college football toward favored institution status after World War II. Between 1912 and 1932, HBCU football overcame major issues that threatened its legitimacy, such as league formation and aligning with the Black press to end corrupt practices. These issues placed Black college football in the broader movement to curtail sports improprieties and bolster Black cultural respectability. This story’s importance rests with the portrayal of HBCUs as nexuses where education and respectability intersected, as reforming football reflected a broader commitment to uplift the race through orderly athletic expression. This article integrates the HBCU experience with the overwhelmingly White scholarship on college football reform in the twentieth century, furthers the concept that segregated sports were platforms for Black uplift through congregation and meritocratic exercise, and highlights the activist role of Black sports media in establishing a higher purpose for Black athletics
Football · Football players · Political science · American History and Culture · Law · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |