Ranking the best HBCU football teams of all time

Maybe your parents attended a Black college. Maybe you did the same. Maybe you grew up watching the Bayou Classic each year on television. Maybe you even got a chance to go to the Bayou Classic. (Maybe you got a chance to attend the Battle of the Bands, saw Southern's Human Jukebox start "Purple Rain," and thought, "How in the hell are they going to do justice to the high notes at the end?" And hot damn, did they do justice to the high notes at the end. Maybe it brought tears to your eyes. But I digress.)

Maybe you were more of a latecomer and didn't get sucked in until the Celebration Bowl started up a few years ago. Or maybe you were hooked by this spring's SWAC showcase, with Alabama A&M willing a thrilling conference race and different coaches taking turns passive-aggressively dunking on Jackson State's Deion Sanders.

HBCU football hooks you forever. It brings to the table all the passion, history, big crowds, rivalry and attitude you could possibly want from college football, and without the pretense and $5 million salaries. It indeed enjoyed a moment in the football spotlight in March and April, with constant ESPN appearances during FCS' one-time-only spring season.

And the 2021 season begins Saturday with Alcorn State and North Carolina Central kicking off the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta, with College GameDay, and hip-hop group Migos, in attendance.

To commemorate the occasion, let's dive into the history books. Here are the 30 greatest HBCU football teams of all time.

The list is frequented by teams in the 1955-1980 range, when a host of legendary coaches fielded teams loaded with future All-Pro talent. After full college football integration took hold, a lot of that talent gravitated toward other schools, but within this list, every decade, every era and nearly every great coach is represented.

30. 1978 Jackson State

Record: 10-2
Coach: W.C. Gorden

Despite having lost massive talents such as running backs Walter Payton and Wilbert Montgomery and legendary tackle Jackie Slater to the NFL in recent seasons, JSU still had enough talent to finish second in the first year-end FCS (then I-AA) poll, losing a squeaker to Grambling State but winning 10 other games by an average of 35-11.

The Tigers were led by defensive tackle Robert Hardy and quarterback Tony Harris and were a favorite in the first FCS playoffs, but they fell behind Florida A&M in windy, sloppy conditions in the semifinals and fell short 15-10. (You'll hear from that Rattlers team in a bit.)

29. 1984 Mississippi Valley State

Record: 9-2
Coach: Archie Cooley

Willie Totten to Jerry Rice, rinse, repeat. In what is now called Rice-Totten Stadium, MVSU fielded perhaps the greatest-ever HBCU offense, averaging 52 points per game with Jerry Rice catching 112 balls for 1,845 yards and 27 touchdowns. (Those numbers are wild today and were downright nonsensical 37 years ago.) The Delta Devils hung 63 points on Southern and 48 on Grambling in Indianapolis' Circle City Classic on their way to a 7-0 start, and they fell only to a top-five Alcorn State, then to Louisiana Tech in the FCS playoffs.

28. 1930 Tuskegee

Record: 11-0-1
Coach: Cleveland Abbott

With Shorty Shanklin running behind a a mammoth-for-its-time line -- the average weight was more than 200 pounds per player up front, an awfully big deal -- Cleveland Abbott's Golden Tigers were untouchable. They won 10 regular-season games by a combined 319-37, pummeled Alabama State by 26 in the Turkey Day Classic, and saw their perfect record blemished only by a 0-0 tie against Wilberforce after a draining trip to Chicago. Their reward, a spot in the Jan. 1 Prairie View Bowl against host Prairie View A&M. Shanklin stole the show in a 19-7 win.

27. 1969 Alcorn State

Record: 8-0-1
Coach: Marino Casem

Coming off of a 9-1 campaign and its first and only Orange Blossom Classic win, Alcorn rolled into 1969 with a loaded roster led by future All-Pro linebacker Dave Washington and five other players who would be drafted in the next two years.

The Braves opened the season by pummeling Eddie Robinson's GSU in front of 62,292 in the L.A. Coliseum and barely slowed down from there. They won four road games by a combined 110-28, and their only blemish came when they fell asleep with a double-digit lead against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (then Arkansas AM&N) and settled for a 23-23 draw. They finished with their second straight Black college national championship.

26. 1993 Howard

Record: 11-1
Coach: Steve Wilson

Having snapped a 10-game losing streak only a year earlier, Steve Wilson's Bison caught fire behind quarterback (and current ESPN analyst) Jay Walker. Walker was hobbled by a badly sprained ankle as they survived an early 38-36 classic against Steve McNair's Alcorn State in St. Louis, but he and the Bison offense averaged 45 points over their final regular-season games. Walker threw for 3,508 yards, and Howard finished the regular season 11-0. Unfortunately, it drew defending national champion Marshall in the playoffs and fell 28-14.

25. 1994 Hampton

Record: 10-1
Coach: Joe Taylor

After Howard fielded its best team in ages in 1993, Real HU rival Hampton responded in kind, perhaps even one-upping the Bison. Joe Taylor's Pirates prepared to move up the FCS ranks by beating Howard and falling by three to Eddie Robinson's last awesome Grambling team in front of 64,315 at Giants Stadium. They laid waste to seven CIAA foes by an average score of 50-12, and Taylor would have them in the FCS playoffs by 1997. A seamless transition if ever one existed.

24. 1990 Central State

Record: 11-1
Coach: Billy Joe

MVSU's 1984 attack was the most famous HBCU offense of the 1980s, but the most consistently ridiculous was located in Wilberforce, Ohio. Billy Joe's Central State Marauders won 10-plus games eight times, with shares of five Black college national titles from 1983 to '92. They reached the NCAA Division II title game in 1983, then dropped to NAIA and laid waste to the field.

Joe brought future pro stars such as Hugh Douglas and Erik Williams to town, and his 1990 Marauders averaged 51 points per game and beat FCS' Morgan State and Tennessee State by a combined 98-27 before romping to the NAIA title. Joe moved on to FAMU in 1994 and nearly won an FCS title with the Rattlers, too.

23. 1976 South Carolina State

Record: 10-1
Coach: Willie Jeffries

SC State had already given the football world Deacon Jones and Harry Carson, among others, when it embarked on a run of 55 wins from 1976 to '81, including an 18-game unbeaten streak. Following a one-point loss to North Carolina A&T early in 1976, RB Ricky Anderson, tackle Mickey Sims & Co. outscored nine remaining opponents by a combined 234-29, finishing the year with a Black college national title and their first bowl win, a 26-10 Bicentennial Bowl defeat of Norfolk State.

Jeffries led SCSU to another Black national title in 1977 and, after stops at Wichita State and Howard, returned to Orangeburg and led it to a third in 1994.

22. 1938 Florida A&M

Record: 8-0
Coach: William M. Bell

Before the legendary Jake Gaither took over in 1945, "Big Bill" Bell engineered his own run at FAMU, enjoying two unbeaten seasons (1938 and 1942) and five Orange Blossom Classic victories. His best team took the field in 1938: The Rattlers' backfield was called the "Four Ghosts" and the line was the "Seven Rocks," and they outscored their first seven opponents by a combined 180-0. They finally allowed a touchdown early in the Orange Blossom Classic against Kentucky State, but fullback Stanley Strachan tied the game, and a safety created the 9-7 final margin and capped a perfect season.

21. 2003 Southern

Record: 12-1
Coach: Pete Richardson

Richardson was the HBCU coach of the 1990s. After winning three CIAA titles at Winston-Salem State, the former Buffalo Bills defensive back moved to Baton Rouge in 1993 and led Southern to five Black national titles in 11 years.

Picking a standout from this run is hard, but we'll give the honors to the last of the champs. The 2003 Jaguars beat their first seven opponents by an average of 43-12, and after a two-point loss to forever-spoiler Alcorn, they rebounded with five wins and a 20-9 defeat of Alabama State in the SWAC championship game.

20. 1934 Kentucky State

Record: 8-0
Coach: Henry Kean

What's even cooler than allowing zero points in a season? Allowing two. It's just science. Kean's Thorobreds did exactly that, beating Tuskegee 6-2 in Cincinnati and winning seven other games, including battles with powerful Wilberforce and Wiley squads, by a combined 187-0. Better yet, they did it with a roster that featured 33 of the school's only 150 male students. That's efficiency right there.

19. 1991 Alabama State

Record: 11-0-1
Coach: Houston Markham

ASU has only two Black national titles on its résumé (1991, 2011), but it made the first one count. After winning their last seven games of 1990, Markham's Hornets survived a series of early scares before catching fire later in the year. Led by future pro linebacker Eddie Robinson Jr. and dual-threat QB Ricky Jones, they won their last six games by an average of 60-11. Yes, that average includes a 92-0 win over hapless Prairie View A&M, but they also stomped NC A&T 36-13 in the inaugural Heritage Bowl. Their dominance down the stretch was unimpeachable.

18. 2017 North Carolina A&T

Record: 12-0
Coach: Rod Broadway

NC A&T won four Celebration Bowls from 2015 to '19. And while the 2015 team featured the exploits of the great Tarik Cohen, the best team of the Aggies' run came the year after Cohen left for the NFL. In 2017, A&T beat an FBS team (Charlotte) for the second of three straight years and pummeled eight MEAC opponents by an average of 33-13 before taking down Grambling State 21-14 in the Celebration Bowl.

It was the last of 125 wins and five Black national titles for Broadway, maybe the greatest HBCU coach of the 21st century.

17. 1978 Florida A&M

Record: 12-1
Coach: Rudy Hubbard

It took a high-level team to prevent Jackson State from winning the first FCS championship. The Rattlers won their first five games by a combined 187-14, and after slipping up against an awesome Tennessee State squad, they resumed their dominance. Led by Hubbard, defensive coordinator (and future Duke head coach) Fred Goldsmith and 1,200-yard rusher Ike Williams, they won at Southern, pummeled Grambling State by 24 in the Orange Blossom Classic, then took down Jackson State and UMass to win the FCS crown.

Oh, yeah, and their place-kicker was Vince Coleman, who, before going on to steal 752 bases in the major leagues, nailed a game-winning field goal to beat Miami in 1979. Bonus points for that.

16. 1926 Howard

Record: 7-0
Coach: Louis L. Watson

Watson's Bison were one of the first genuine powerhouses in Black college football. They went 20-0-3 from 1923 to '26, and the best team of that run was probably the last. With quarterback Jack Coles and halfback Clarence "Tick" Smith running roughshod, they opened legendary Howard Stadium with five wins there by a combined 185-6 and beat both Wilberforce and Clark Atlanta on the road as well. In front of 16,000 on Thanksgiving, they capped their unbeaten run with a 32-0 stomping of a Lincoln team they hadn't beaten in six years.

15. 1984 Tennessee State

Record: 11-0
Coach: William A. Thomas

In December 1983, John Merritt, one of the most celebrated and successful coaches in college football's history, died of a heart attack at 57. The next fall, his TSU Tigers paid a season-long tribute.

Led by former Merritt assistant Bill Thomas and alternating between quarterbacks Ken Biggles and Gilbert Renfroe, Big Blue won nine games by 20-plus points, handed Grambling its first-ever loss in Robinson Stadium, and paused its HBCU slate long enough to beat Louisville, snaring seven interceptions (three from three-time All-American Carl McAfee) in the process.

14. 1977 Grambling State

Record: 10-1
Coach: Eddie Robinson

The charismatic Merritt was a Barry Switzer to Eddie Robinson's Joe Paterno, and his Tigers were constant thorns in the sides of the G-Men. That was never more evident than when TSU beat up on GSU in a driving rainstorm in 1977. Doug Williams went just 9-for-33 with three interceptions on a sloppy track.

It was an impressive performance by any measure. It was more impressive considering what else GSU did that year. The Tigers beat nine other regular-season opponents by an average of 47-13, and Williams threw for over 3,000 yards, primarily to Mike Moore and Carlos Pennywell. And before Williams could go 17th overall in the 1978 NFL draft, GSU flew to Tokyo to beat Temple in the Mirage Bowl.

13. 1960 Grambling State

Record: 9-1
Coach: Eddie Robinson

The professional ranks were only beginning to discover HBCU football at the start of the 1960s; GSU gave them no choice but to take a closer look. The 1960 Tigers boasted future All-Pro defensive tackles Buck Buchanan and Ernie Ladd and defensive back Roosevelt Taylor and had such ridiculous overall depth that Willie Brown, a future All-Pro cornerback and Super Bowl hero for the Oakland Raiders, had to carve out time at receiver and linebacker.

GSU suffered an early 16-6 loss to a loaded Southern in Jaguar Stadium but ran the table from there, winning its last seven games by a combined 284-56.

12. 1932 Wiley

Record: 9-0
Coach: Fred T. Long

The first Black college in Texas to field a team, Wiley pretty quickly became good at it, too. The Wildcats won shares of four Black national championships (1921, 1928, 1932, 1945) and, in 1932, fielded an almost perfect football team. They allowed eight points all season -- all against Langston in the sixth game of the year -- and improved late, beating their last three opponents by a combined 174-0. Wiley kept winning in two different stints under Long, but with integration draining the pool of available talent, the school dropped the sport in the late 1960s.

11. 1958 Prairie View A&M

Record: 10-0-1
Coach: Billy Nicks

Nicks' Panthers racked up five Black national titles between 1953 and '64. Two of those champions (1953, 1964) had perfect records -- the 1964 team also had future All-Pro receiver Otis Taylor -- but the 1958 team, dominating as talent levels were rising quickly, was the most impressive. They drew with John Merritt's Jackson State early in the season but found a high cruising altitude, pounding increasingly talented Grambling and Southern teams by a combined 64-20, manhandling Jake Gaither's FAMU 26-8 in the Orange Blossom Classic, then finishing the year with a 34-8 romp over Langston in the Prairie View Bowl.

10. 1957 Florida A&M

Record: 9-0
Coach: Jake Gaither

How impressive was PVAMU's late-1958 win over FAMU? It was one of only three Rattlers losses in a five-year stretch between 1957 and '61. Gaither's success to date had helped to get Bragg Stadium built in 1957, and FAMU christened it with Gaither's best team yet.

Led by the rushing of Lewis Johnson, the Rattlers blazed through eight regular-season opponents by a combined score of 316-20, then outlasted Maryland State (now Maryland-Eastern Shore) 27-21 in front of 37,000 at the Orange Blossom Classic. This was a dominant team, and FAMU would only get better in the years to come.

9. 1948 Southern

Record: 12-0
Coach: Ace Mumford

After massively successful stints at Bishop and Texas College, Mumford took over at Southern in 1936, won his first SWAC title in 1937 and won five of six games against Eddie Robinson's GSU. His late-1930s Jaguars were so good that Southern supposedly built accommodations for white fans into what is now Mumford Stadium, and in 1948 Southern shut out eight opponents, scored 30-plus points seven times, beat Grambling and FAMU by a combined 43 points and finished the year with a journey out west to pummel San Francisco State 30-0.

This was the first of five Black national titles at SU for Mumford, who, tragically, would die of a heart attack in the spring of 1962.

8. 1956 Tennessee State

Record: 10-0
Coach: Howard C. Gentry

After playing for Gaither at FAMU in the 1940s, Gentry took over at what was then Tennessee A&I in 1955 and quickly made headway. The Tigers won their last five games of 1955, then ran roughshod in 1956, outscoring nine regular-season foes, including GSU and Southern, by a combined 353-25.

Their Orange Blossom Classic meeting with Gaither's FAMU was a classic. TSU clung to a 41-39 lead with FAMU facing a fourth-and-goal in the final minute. From Derrick White's "Blood, Sweat, and Tears": Senior quarterback Dennis Jefferson tried to sneak the ball into the end zone. There was a pile of bodies followed by an 'ominous and echoing silence' in the stadium. The referees untangled the tired men and signaled that the ball was short of the end zone. ... As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Tigers' band 'started a rock 'n roll war cry with partisans ... whipping it up mercilessly.' Coach Gentry, the pupil, schooled Gaither, the teacher.

7. 1966 Morgan State

Record: 9-0
Coach: Earl Banks

Banks' Bears lost the final game of 1964, 13-6 at the hands of Virginia State. They wouldn't lose again for almost four years. After a half-decade of program building, Banks unleashed a relentlessly talented team; the 1966 squad was probably the peak, featuring future NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Willie Lanier, plus future Super Bowl participants such as corner Mark Washington, running back Frenchy Fuqua and tight end Raymond Chester.

The talent was obvious, but Morgan State was still playing at the NAIA level; from 1965 to '67, it outscored opponents by an average of 35-6. But it sealed its legacy in 1968, taking down Grambling in a packed Yankee Stadium.

6. 1933 Morgan State

Record: 9-0
Coach: Edward P. Hurt

Of all the dominant teams from the early era of HBCU football, Hurt's Bears, led by halfback, three-sport star and future Winston-Salem State head coach Tom "Tank" Conrad, might have been the best of the bunch. They beat Howard and Hampton by a combined 40-6, and those were the competitive games. Seven other foes fell by a combined 279-0.

Hurt would end up winning shares of six Black college national titles in 17 years; he was possibly an even better track coach -- he produced eight NCAA champions, a bunch of Penn Relay wins and Olympic gold medalist George Rhoden.

5. 1959 Florida A&M

Record: 10-0
Coach: Jake Gaither

After a two-loss reset in 1958, Gaither's Rattlers were back to wreck shop in 1959. With future New York Giant Clarence Childs taking the lion's share of carries, FAMU beat seven of 10 opponents by at least 21 points, survived a stiff test from Mumford's Southern (21-14 at home) and again finished the year with an Orange Blossom Classic win, this time over the Prairie View A&M team that had beaten it a year prior. The Rattlers spotted the Panthers an early 7-0 lead, then cruised 28-7.

4. 1966 Tennessee State

Record: 10-0 Coach: John Merritt

Eldridge Dickey might have been the first Black superstar at the quarterback position. He threw for 6,523 yards at what was still known as Tennessee A&I and, in 1966, piloted the Tigers' first perfect season. He threw for 343 yards in a 31-23 comeback win over Grambling, and almost no one forced him -- or the rest of Merritt's ridiculously talented roster -- to break a sweat. They outscored eight other regular-season foes by an average of 43-3 and earned a bid to the Grantland Rice Bowl, where they allowed Muskingum only 76 total yards in a 34-7 romp.

3. 1955 Grambling State

Record: 10-0
Coach: Eddie Robinson

Robinson's first Black college national champion also might have been his best team. Coming off of a disappointing 4-3-2 season in 1954, the G-Men charged ahead with both the best offense (33 points per game) and defense (five points allowed per game) of the Robinson era to date.

Led by future NFL Hall of Famer Willie Davis, Robinson's first draft pick, the Tigers picked up steam as the season went on, eventually heading down to Miami to take on Jake Gaither's equally loaded FAMU in the Orange Blossom Classic. In a nip-and-tuck game in front of 40,319, GSU prevailed 28-21 thanks to two touchdowns from back Ed Murray, and took home the national title.

2. 1973 Tennessee State

Record: 10-0
Coach: John Merritt

After watching five players get selected in the 1973 NFL draft, Big John Merritt somehow fielded an even more talented team that fall. As in "two of the top four picks in the 1974 draft" talented. Too Tall Jones (No. 1 pick), Waymond Bryant (No. 4) and Cleveland Elam (No. 85 in 1975) powered an unassailable defensive front, and Big Blue rounded into form after a thrilling 19-13 win over Grambling in early October. They outscored their last six opponents by a combined 214-33 -- in probably the peak of HBCU football's power, no less -- and finished the year not only with a Black college national championship but also with the top spot in the NCAA's small-school rankings.

On high-end talent alone, they might have had a case for No. 1 in all-school rankings.

1. 1961 Florida A&M

Record: 10-0
Coach: Jake Gaither

Gaither's seventh of eight Black college national champions represented the pinnacle of not only his legendary stint at FAMU but also, perhaps, HBCU football as a whole. The Rattlers allowed more than eight points, or scored fewer than 32, just one time each. They redefined "team speed," not only giving the ball to future 100-meter gold medalist Bob Hayes but also handing frequently to Robert Paremore, a teammate of Hayes' on the country's best 440-yard relay unit. They obliterated nine regular-season opponents by an average of 54-3, and when they were finally challenged, by Jackson State in front of a record Orange Blossom Classic crowd, they responded. Quarterback Jim Tullis raced for a 61-yard score, and FAMU won 14-8 to close out a third perfect season in five years.