Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Tiffany Greene was 5 years old when she set her mind on becoming a sportscaster. She didn’t predetermine her academic path but kinfolk might’ve bet on an HBCU, particularly Florida A&M. Her parents met there and her grandparents met there, and a great-grandmother graduated from there in 1908.
“Pretty much all of my aunts and uncles and cousins went to an HBCU,” Greene said via phone. “I saw HBCUs all around me and Florida A&M was the dominant one. FAMU is really like FAMULY.”
An ESPN employee since 2012, she’s the first Black woman to call college football on a national level. But the pride within her orange-and-green clan has swelled as she prepares for the Celebration Bowl on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta when the Rattlers face Howard for the Black national title.
These are heady times for FAMU, coming off its first championship in the Southwestern Athletic Conference since it left the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 2021. The brand has never been stronger, not even in 1978 when FAMU became the first and only Black college to win the Division I-AA national title.
Greene’s broadcast partner for Saturday’s game happens to be Jay “Sky” Walker, who quarterbacked Howard to an 11-0 record in 1993. Like anyone who’s well-versed in HBCU culture and its linguistical combat arts — the snaps, cracks and unlimited shade for opponents — he isn’t impressed.
“Don’t put us down there with FAMU,” he said. “I don’t even know if FAMU is the official HBCU for the state of Florida. I know Howard is America’s Black college. It’s Howard and everybody else.”
This pairing has called FAMU games and Howard games together, but never a contest between their alma maters. Howard punched its ticket to the Celebration Bowl on Nov. 18, forcing Walker to wait patiently until Florida A&M secured its slot two weeks later. Now the battle is on, though talking smack never takes a day off.
“It’s a real thing,” Greene said. “We really do go back and forth. We just got off a coaches’ call and we’re still at it. He usually has the ‘shots fired’ approach, always throwing it out there. Sometimes I take the bait.”
“The key is we talk trash all during the season,” said Walker, who joined ESPN in 2005. “I know she’s gonna brag about FAMU, and she knows I’m gonna brag about Howard. The fans get a big kick out of it, too.”
Walker has more leeway to editorialize as the color commentator, compared to Greene as the play-by-play announcer. She said folks ask why she doesn’t clap back at Walker, but her role requires more restraint. The duo can score easy points from viewers who rock with either school, but the Celebration Bowl audience will be much broader (2.4 million last year).
“As much as we love our universities, we’re covering these conferences and different programs and we still have a job to do,” Greene said. “Now, will there be an occasional comment or maybe a little extra sauce put on something? Perhaps. But honestly, we want to represent both of these universities for those who are tuning in for the first time or learning about HBCUs in general.
“We want to get them hooked on the great product on the field and these institutions, and we still have to do it in a fair and balanced manner.”
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Objectively speaking, the 11-1 Rattlers should win this game, though I’m pulling for (you know) the Bison. FAMU is No. 5 in the FCS Coaches Poll and boasts the nation’s second-best defense in terms of yards (267) and points (14.25) allowed per game. Howard doesn’t have many statistical advantages but it hails from the MEAC, which is 6-1 against the SWAC since the Celebration Bowl’s inception in 2015.
Regardless of what happens, the pomp and pageantry of an HBCU title match beats the meh of a first-round game in the FCS playoffs. Like Greene and Walker, initially, I was skeptical when the SWAC and MEAC spurned automatic playoff bids and committed their champs to the Celebration Bowl instead. But now it’s a no-brainer.
Celebration Bowl participants end the seasons on national TV, in Atlanta’s NFL stadium with more than 40,000 fans in attendance. HBCUs in the playoffs typically end their season after one game in a pedestrian outpost with no splash and few spectators. Greene and Walker were sold on the Celebration Bowl after its debut when North Carolina A&T halfback Tarik Cohen was so impressive (295 yards rushing with three touchdowns) that the Chicago Bears drafted him in the fourth round.
Greene, the sideline reporter that year, was blown away by the aftermath. “Everybody was talking about North Carolina A&T,” she said. “It became an easily recognizable brand simply because of that one game, on ABC, on a Saturday at noon. No exposure in the playoffs has brought that same kind of acclaim to an HBCU program.”
Walker, who has playoff experience on the field and in the booth, was “definitely a playoff guy” prior to 2015. “But now it’s not even close,” he said. “It’s the Celebration Bowl. This thing is phenomenal in terms of what it brings together. It has become the go-to event on the HBCU calendar. More people watch it than any game out there. Everybody wants to get there.”
FAMU and Howard are making the trip for the first time, two fan bases bringing their unique flavor to the ATL.
One announcer will be thrilled at the end.
The other will have to hear about it for at least 365 days.
The Celebration Bowl airs Saturday at noon ET on ABC.
Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.
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