Jackson State University has an extraordinary history of success and accomplishments in football since 1911, the year the college started its football program. Championships, stunning victories, record attendance, and outstanding team and individual performers have contributed to JSU becoming one of the most recognizable college football programs in the country.
The team has fashioned winning seasons like the W.C. Gorden-coached teams from 1985 to 1989 that won 28 consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference games. Individual accolades have been many. The Tigers have produced more than 50 All Americans, had 100 players drafted into the NFL, including seven first-round picks. Lem Barney, Walter Payton, Jackie Slater and Robert Brazile have been inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.
Over the years, the Tigers have played in and won some big games that brought national attention to the university and football program. None more so than the 1962 Orange Blossom Classic against the Florida A&M University Rattlers in Miami, Florida. A year earlier, the Tigers played the Rattlers in the 29th Annual Orange Blossom Classic. The game was played in Miami's Orange Bowl Stadium before a record crowd of 47,791 fans. The festivities surrounding the 1961 game left some of the Tiger players in awe.
Willie Richardson, Jackson State's All-American wide receiver and NFL All-Pro, reflected on the two Orange Blossom Classic games for an article for the 2007 Jacksonian Magazine.
"We had never seen anything like that," said Richardson, who passed away in February of 2016. "The festivities, the crowd, the parade, the fans, and for most of us, it was our first time taking a plane ride. We had never played before a crowd like that, and to be playing in the Orange Bowl was really something. It seemed like 50,000 or 60,000 people were in the stands."
"The thing that sticks out in my mind (in the first classic) is the number of players they had," continued Richardson. "We were warming up when they came out on the field. It looked like it took them almost an hour to come out. We had 36 or 38 players. They must have had a hundred. I had never seen that many players (on the same team) before."
The Tigers lost that game 14-8 and finished the 1961 season with a 9-2 record. The Jackson State players and coaches felt they should have won that game. On the other hand, the FAMU players felt they should have won by a larger margin.
"The whole team got together after the game and said if we got invited back, we would beat them," said Richardson.
The Tigers' affable head coach, John "Big John" Merritt, chided after the game, "If they give us another chance next year, we will prove that we are the better team."
As it turned out, Jackson State almost didn't get asked back. Tommy Devine, then Sports Editor of the Miami News, wrote that when it came time to select the Rattler's opponent for the 1962 Orange Blossom Classic, coach Jake Gaither gave his Florida A&M players a choice of two teams.
They were Morgan State of Baltimore or Jackson State. Gaither had a strong preference for the Eastern team.
"Back in 1943, when we were playing with a squad that had been reduced both in talent and numbers by World War II, we played Morgan State," Gaither is quoted as saying in the Miami News. "They beat us 50-0. Ever since that time, I have tried in vain to get a game with them, but they would never schedule us. However, they were receptive to a classic bid," Gaither relates.
The players weren't concerned with ancient history, continues the Miami News story. They recalled the great game they had with Jackson State a year earlier, but some observers were not convinced that they were the superior team.
The Rattlers wanted to prove they were, so Jackson State was given the return bid.The rest, as they say, is history.
Florida A&M was the Alabama Crimson Tide of those days. Coach Gaither and FAMU had taken the college football world by storm. The Rattlers were on a 21-game winning streak and ranked number one in small colleges by The Associated Press. They had the world's fastest backfield in Robert Paremore, Hewitt Dixon and Bob Hayes (Olympic gold medalist who ran the 100-yard dash in 9.2 seconds and was known as the world's fastest human). All three went on to NFL careers.
Football pundits had tabbed the Rattlers a two-touchdown favorite over the Tigers. FAMU, with all its tradition, all-star athletes, and 200-piece marching band, was supposed to crush little upstart Jackson State.
But on this evening, December 8, 1962, the stars were aligned just right for the Tigers. Jackson State had the right coach, the right staff, and the right players at the right time. There would be no denying the Jackson State team on this day.
Merritt and his core staff of Joe Gilliam (defensive coordinator) and Alvin "Cat" Coleman (offensive coordinator) had assembled a talented, speedy team with depth. In addition to Richardson, the Tigers fielded an all-star quarterback in Roy Curry, and a super backfield in fullback Louis McRae and halfback Edgar "Chico" Jordan.
Other blue chippers on the team included Leslie "Speedy" Duncan (DB), Verlon Biggs (DL), Albert Greer (WR) and guards Harold Cooley and James "Big Daddy" Carson.
Jackson State cruised through the regular season, winning nine of its 10 season games. The Tigers won the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship the second straight year. Jackson State averaged 38.9 points per game. During that two-year span, the Tigers won 18 of their 21 games.
Now the Tigers were poised to take on the mighty Rattlers in the 30th Annual Orange Blossom Classic. Black College football supremacy was at stake.
An announced crowd of 43,461 fans were on hand for the game. A light rain had fallen most of the day before the 8:15 pm kickoff, hampering the anticipated crowd of 50,000.
The Tigers pounced on the Rattlers early. Jackson State took the opening kickoff and marched 63 yards in three minutes. Jordan scored the game's first touchdown on a 14-yard run up the middle. The Tigers stretched that lead to 22-0 by the half on touchdown runs by McRae and Curry.
Richardson's heroics as a wide receiver were well known. What most don't know is that Richardson played both ways in college. He played defensive back and had two interceptions in the game. On the first interception, he returned it 42 yards and set up the Tigers' second touchdown. His second interception came toward the end of the game and stopped a potential scoring drive for the Rattlers.
Jackson State went on to win the game 22-6 and was named black college football champions by the Pittsburgh Courier. Curry was voted the game's most outstanding player. At least 12 members of the team played one or more years in the NFL including Richardson, Curry, Verlon Biggs, Leslie Duncan, Albert Greer, Ben Magee, Frank Molden, Roy Hilton and Gloster Richardson.
Following the 1962 classic win, Jackson State was recognized as a small college football power. The success of the 1961 and 1962 teams gave instant recognition to the name Jackson State when it came to college football.
From 1961 to 2002, the Tigers averaged seven wins a season, won or tied for 15 SWAC championships, had 94 players drafted into the NFL, including seven in the first round. Jackson State had a then state of Mississippi record 11 players drafted by the NFL in 1968.
Jackson State set NCAA Division I-AA attendance records during the 1980s and 1990s and routinely played before home crowds of more than 40,000 spectators.
The decade of the 1960s spawned social awareness and like those times of change, the success of the 1961 and 1962 Jackson State football teams moved the Tiger program into the national limelight as one of the more recognizable collegiate programs in the country.
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