By James B. Ewers Jr. Ed.D.
The last time my beloved alma mater, Johnson C. Smith University won a CIAA Football Championship was 1969. That’s a long time ago by any barometer that you use. I live in another time zone, yet my clock is always on JCSU time.
I have watched, read and heard about the new Golden Bulls football team over the past few years. My thinking was there seemed to be a new attitude and a new way of doing business.
It was my honor to meet Maurice Flowers, head football coach at JCSU a few years ago. I interviewed him for a story that I did and came away thinking that he is a winner. He talked like a winner and had a distinctive confidence in himself. Plainly put, he had the “it factor”.
I was hooked. So, I tuned in or turned on to find out the score between JCSU and our opponent. Last year was a year that we almost made it. I know the JCSU family was disappointed near and far.
You see, I was a student-athlete at Johnson C. Smith University and was a part of a CIAA Tennis Championship team. I know first-hand the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat because I have been on both sides of that sports equation.
While 2nd place is a great achievement, it’s not the championship trophy. Winning is tough and there is a gear that you must shift to in order to achieve a championship.
The 2025 Johnson C. Smith University Football team is now the champion of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Let’s ring the bell and applaud mightily for this wonderful accomplishment.
I have often said that records can be broken but championships cannot. They will remain with you forever. To be called a CIAA champion is a high honor and must be celebrated. It must be revered.
The football target was on this team’s back for the past month. Lose and they were out of contention. There could be no slip ups. It had to be winning time each week.
Fayetteville State University wanted to play spoiler, but our character and our resilience stopped them. I believe our team must have said, “The Golden Bulls are in your house and it’s winning time for us.”
Every member of the Golden Bulls nation was on high alert as we defeated the Broncos. However, we still had more work to do.
My antenna was up because I knew that Livingstone College was our next opponent. We hear the term, win and you’re in and that was certainly true for us on Saturday, November 8th. A victory in The Commemorative Classic would send us to the CIAA Championship game. We won.
Virginia Union University would be our foes on Saturday, November 15th. Alumni and friends of JCSU all arrived in Durham NC to watch the game. Those who couldn’t attend watched it on HBCU Go, a television station owned by Byron Allen.
Announcements and pronouncements were made by the media about the significance of this game. The CIAA is the oldest African American athletic conference in America.
The two teams were both ranked in the NCAA II college rankings. Pundits opined that regardless of the outcome both teams would make the playoffs. We defeated the Virginia Union University Panthers 45-26.
Hold high the Gold and Blue as the JCSU Golden Bulls will forever be called CIAA Champions.