Two National Champs Play Each Other This Weekend. It’s Not Who You Think.
Why TSU vs Notre Dame might just be the game that explains a century
About 75 years ago, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish won two National Championships. In the annals of sports history, it’s considered one of the most dominant runs by any team ever; from 1946 to 1947 the Irish won two national championships, went undefeated, and brought home a Heisman trophy. The commentator Beano Cook once declared, “It is the greatest collection of talent ever assembled in one college team—and it isn’t close.”
Yet at the exact same time, another team was dominating college football 400 miles south of Notre Dame Stadium. Tennessee State University, a historically black college in Nashville, won National Championships in 1946 and 1947 as well. In ’47, the TSU Tigers went 10-0 and outscored opponents 295-59 throughout the season. Still, the only press coverage they received were a few bland paragraphs tucked away in the corner of the local paper: “The win gave the Tigers an unblemished record for the 10-game season.”
On Saturday, the Tigers travel to Notre Dame to face the Irish for the first time in either programs’ history. In the decades since those great teams of the ‘40s, the Irish have become arguably the most recognizable global brand in college sports (last week, Notre Dame sold out its game in Dublin, and 39,176 Americans made the trip abroad specifically for the matchup), while TSU has been largely forgotten. In 1947, the Tigers vs the Irish would have been like Ohio State playing Alabama today. Now, many overlook TSU playing Notre Dame as nothing but a classic early season cupcake matchup. They expect the Irish to roll over the Tigers, and they’re almost certain to be right. But look closer, and what you’ll see is maybe the most interesting game of the season—a game that might just tell the story of college football.
Back in the ‘40s when both teams went unbeaten, they existed in two distinct college football worlds. The Irish and most of college football had yet to integrate, so HBCU football remained full of talent and passion. Eric Roberts, a sportswriter for a Black newspaper in Atlanta, once said, “Our heaven and our glory was…not at Harvard, but at Howard and Lincoln.”
Hidden in their own separate world, these teams thrived. “Black college football formed a part of the sound and soul of the black experience in the 20th century,” wrote Tyler Tynes in The Ringer. It wasn’t until 1972 (yes, 1972) that every team in the Southeastern Conference was fully integrated, and their prejudice was HBCU football’s gain. Pulling players from the same talent pool that SEC schools overlooked, TSU continued winning national championships throughout the 1970s, 11 in all. The Tigers’ stars would go on to dominate the NFL, like Super Bowl MVP Richard Dent, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, and Dominique Rogers Cromartie. HBCU football thrived at other schools too: Walter Payton attended Jackson State, Jerry Rice played for Mississippi Valley State, and our own Michael Strahan suited up for the other TSU, Texas Southern.
During this golden age, traditional college powers refused to play HBCUs—just as much out of fear of losing as anything else. In 1979, Miami finally faced off against local powerhouse Florida A&M and lost 16-13. The Hurricanes swore the loss would never happen again, but rather than settling it on the football field, they took the fight to the world of recruiting, finally acknowledging the Black talent in their own backyard. By 1983, the U won its first National Championship, the start of a legendary run.
Miami wasn’t the only team to pillage HBCU rosters and talent base. As soon as traditional powerhouses, like Notre Dame, realized that they needed overlooked talent to compete for National Championships, they got on board, and at the same time, the money Division-1 college football teams earned began to skyrocket. Today, the Irish athletic department, which has its own deal with NBC, brings in $165,660,298 in revenue annually. TSU’s entire endowment is only $91.1 million.
On Saturday, if you watch the Tigers play the Irish, you’ll see the result of decades of neglect: at first it was the neglect of attention, and later, schools like Notre Dame watched while HBCU football died on the vine. You’ll see two trains that were once running on parallel tracks and are now miles apart. But perhaps they could be getting closer once again. Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman is one of just 14 Black coaches in FBS football, and Saturday will be only the third time that Black head coaches have ever faced each other at Notre Dame Stadium. TSU has a bolt of new energy, led by head coach Eddie George who won two Heisman trophies at Ohio State. Last season, ESPN aired the Celebration Bowl, which pits the champions of the two main HBCU football conferences, and drew 2.6 million viewers, a larger audience than many FBS bowl games. And not to be overlooked is just how valuable experiences like the game at South Bend can be for teams like TSU. At long last, the Tigers have a chance to prove themselves against Notre Dame.
“The standard across the board in terms of how you operate, how you bring the intentionality and details and discipline and focus, that’s the quality that we’re going after,” Eddie George said this week. “And when you’re exposed to that, you explain to your kids—regardless of the outcome—we’re going to learn how to be champions.”
Maybe someday soon, the Tigers will be champions once again.
🏐 Earlier this week, the Nebraska Cornhuskers women’s volleyball team played their game in Memorial Stadium in front of 92,003 screaming fans—the most ever for a women’s sports event. It was an amazing scene, as Tom Shatel helps describe for the Omaha World Herald.
🗽 As the New York Times’ headline declares, “Frances Tiafoe is ready.” Tiafoe’s is one of the best stories in sports (and it’s one that we covered right here a few months ago), and he has a chance to make history at the US Open this year as the first American champ since Andy Roddick in 2003.
🎾 Speaking of Roddick, don’t miss this excellent profile of the former US Open champ in GQ.
🏈 I love that this high school made a mini-field for kids to play on during Friday Night games. Why doesn’t every school do this?
🦘 The Saints’ new punter is a 30-year-old undrafted rookie who just might have the wildest path to the NFL ever. From Australia, Hedley owned a tattoo shop in Bali and worked as a scaffolder in Indonesia before dedicating himself to football. He started punting for City College in San Francisco and eventually earned a transfer to the University of Miami. Now look at him!
