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Eight-time Pro Bowler Deion Sanders came to Jackson State closely followed by an entourage of photographers with flashing cameras, broadcasters with microphones and journalists with clicking pens.
Sanders brought Jackson State and HBCUs collectively back under the media spotlight, and now others, such as Norfolk State and Delaware State, are replicating his methods.
Is what Sanders did a formula for long-term fanfare and attention, or does it mark just another passing wave of media coverage?
HBCU athletics have experienced sporadic waves of national media coverage over 50 years.
“HBCU sports has had various eras where they got great publicity, and usually it was because of national stories,” said Carl ‘Lut’ Williams, the publisher and editor of the Black College Sports Page (BCSP).
One such era was that of Jackson State running back, Walter Payton. The All-American rushed for 3,600 yards with the Tigers and was selected fourth overall by the Chicago Bears in the 1975 NFL Draft.
The nine-time Pro Bowler went on to play 13 seasons with the Bears, leading them to a Super Bowl win in 1986. Payton brought even more attention to his alma mater after leading the NFL in total carries (3,838), rushing yards (16,726) and rushing touchdowns (110) upon retirement at the end of the 1987 season.
Another such era was that of Alcorn State quarterback Steve McNair’s third place finish in the Heisman Trophy race in 1994, making him the highest-finishing HBCU quarterback. McNair was beat out by Rashaan Salaam of Colorado and Ki-Jana Carter of Penn State.
McNair went on to play 14 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Tennessee Titans. The three-time Pro Bowler ended his career with the Baltimore Ravens.
“It takes either someone like Steve McNair…or somebody on the professional ranks like a Walter Payton who becomes the leading rusher in the history of the NFL when he retired, or a Jerry Rice from Mississippi Valley State,” Williams said. “That’s when the focus is on HBCUs.”
“Anytime there is that kind of publicity that focuses on HBCU athletes or programs, the coverage nationally rises,” Williams added. “Other than that, it is always playing second fiddle to the big colleges, the Alabamas and Tennessees.”
The major HBCU athletic conferences did what they could to keep HBCUs in the limelight, according to another longtime observer and administrator of Black College sports.
“25-30 years ago, even then, HBCUs were doing some great things as far as media coverage and putting the athletes, coaches, and athletic programs out before the media,” said Lonza Hardy, the Associate Commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) between 1986 and 2001.
Hardy coordinated the SWAC Football Press Tour, the conference’s biggest media event that took place annually between 1978 and 1997. The conference’s coaches and top student-athletes, including names such as Payton, Doug Williams (Grambling State) and Michael Strahan (Texas Southern), traveled to five cities by bus for a week of press conferences and banquets not just for the media, but also for alumni and fans. The press tour took place in early July, taking the SWAC members to Montgomery, Al.; Jackson, Ms.; Baton Rouge, La.; Houston, Tx.; and either Grambling or Shreveport, La.
“It was a long, arduous tour, but the coaches, as well as the personnel representing the schools, were committed to doing what had to be done in order to get the names of their athletes and their programs out before the public,” Hardy said.
“Back in those days, all of those events during each of those five stops during the tour were always sold out with all of the major media outlets and the smaller outlets, print media, radio, and television,” he added. “All came out to get a glimpse of those coaches and athletes promoting their programs.”
However, the SWAC Football Press Tour came to an end before this century, and thus, that wave of national coverage passed.
National media attention resurged over 20 years later in September 2020 when Jackson State announced Sanders as its new head coach. The announcement received over one million impressions on Facebook and Twitter and an estimate of $12 million in media exposure.
In 2021, Sanders’ first full season, the Hall of Fame inductee led the Tigers to an 8-0 conference record and their first SWAC championship since 2007. Jackson State had an 11-2 overall record, its first 10-win season since 1996.
The media coverage only increased when Coach Prime secured the nation’s top-recruit in the 2022 class, Travis Hunter. The defensive back became the first five-star recruit to commit to an HBCU program, flipping his commitment from Florida State to Jackson State on Dec. 15, 2021.
“The story that shook up college football was when he got the No. 1 player in the country to come to Jackson State,” Williams said. “That exacerbated the story and made it 10-times bigger than it already was.
People had to shake their heads and wonder, ‘How did he do that?’”
The following spring, Jackson State became the first HBCU to have its spring football game nationally televised. It aired on ESPNU.
Sanders and Hunter led the Tigers to an 11-0 regular season finish in 2022, the program’s first undefeated regular season in school history. Jackson State won its second-straight SWAC Championship.
Jackson State’s media exposure progressed from there.
Sanders discussed the transformation of the football program on 60 Minutes on Oct, 16, with journalist Jon Wertheim.
ESPN College GameDay hosted a live show from Jackson State later that month. Deion Sanders was interviewed by Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, and Kirk Herbstreit.
“They hadn’t gotten many headlines, and all of a sudden every headline,” Williams said. “Every time Deion Sanders sneezed, it was a headline.”
Even after Sanders left to coach the Colorado Buffaloes in early 2023, taking Hunter with him, Jackson State prevailed, both on the field and in the media’s limelight.
The Tigers went 8-0 in conference play last season and won the SWAC championship for the third time in four years. They beat South Carolina State 28-7 for their first-ever Celebration Bowl victory.
The SWAC signed a media rights deal in 2022 with Allen Media Group to partner with HBCU GO, an HBCU free-streaming digital service that allows CBS-owned TV stations to broadcast the conference’s games. The platform will pay more than $120 million to the SWAC across 10 years.
HBCU GO also has distribution with group-owned television stations such as Cox, Scripps, Tegna, and Nexstar. This deal enables HBCU games to be accessed via air broadcast, digital, and cable, placing HBCU Go in approximately 60% of all US households and 67% of all African American households.
“There is no denying that Jackson State was back in the day and will always be a premier athletics program, but what I believe Deion Sanders did for Jackson State was generate some national publicity that the university probably could not have afforded to pay for,” Williams said.
Other HBCUs are seeing the success and media attention Jackson State garnered through Deion Sanders and following the formula.
“Everybody is looking to catch that lightning in a bottle that Jackson State got with Coach Prime,” Williams said.
This includes Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) schools. Norfolk State hired four-time Pro Bowler and Hampton Roads native Michael Vick on Dec. 20. Delaware State hired three-time Pro Bowler DeSean Jackson on Dec. 27.
“It has become a cachet now for HBCUs if they are looking for coaches to try to dip into former NFL players to bring in as coaches, because that is one thing that raises the profile off the bat,” Williams said.
“When they get a formula that appears to work, and it certainly worked for Jackson State, people are going to duplicate it,” he added.
The change in media coverage has been drastic at Norfolk State and Delaware State.
“We would receive national media coverage on occasion, very case-by-case,” said Alex Lehmbeck, Norfolk State’s Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Communication. “But when the Coach Vick hiring was announced, the national media coverage increased quickly. We were getting interview requests from pretty much any national publication you can think of, from ESPN to CNN. That was certainly a dramatic increase from what we previously had dealt with.”
The Spartans held their annual spring game on April 19, marking Vick’s debut at the helm.
“It was our most anticipated spring game that we have ever had,” Lehmbeck added. “I have been at Norfolk State for a little over three years, so this was my fourth spring game, and it certainly had more hype and fanfare and anticipation than any we have had before.”
Fans flooded William “Dick” Price Stadium, forcing staff to remove the tarps that typically cover half of the stadium seats during the regular season, according to Treyvn Gray, Norfolk State beat writer for the Virginian Pilot.
Other Hamptons Roads legends, such as former NBA player Allen Iverson, NFL veteran Tyrod Taylor, and UFC fighter Keyshawn Davis came out to witness Vick’s homecoming.
In light of the increased media attention and fan interest, the annual Delaware State-Norfolk State showdown will now be played at the Philadelphia Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 1 at Delaware State’s Alumni Stadium, but it will now take place on Thursday, Oct. 30 at the home of the defending Super Bowl champions.
Vick and Jackson were Eagles teammates from 2009 through 2013, playing together in 2010 when Vick won NFL Comeback Player of the Year and made his fourth Pro Bowl appearance. Jackson made his second Pro Bowl appearance that year.
“They have ties to the area, so it makes perfect sense,” said Jarrett Hoffman, a reporter for HBCU Sports. “You already have the excitement of … them coming, so why not capitalize (on) it and put it at the Linc? I’m pretty sure that if they made tickets available right now, they would sell out because everybody is invested in what Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson are going to do.”
The matchup marks the first time a MEAC regular-season football game will be played at the Linc.
“I think it’s great that you get some HBCU football in the Philadelphia area in a big arena,” Hoffman added. “I hope that the teams deliver and that somebody in the stadium who may not have known about HBCUs beforehand decides that this is something they want to be a part of.”
The surge of national media coverage serves to highlight the history, traditions, and strengths of these HBCU teams, changing the narrative around historically undervalued HBCU football programs and academic institutions.
“I’ve only been working [at the Virginian-Pilot] a little while, and I am already seeing the big impact Vick is having,” Gray said. “Having Vick at Norfolk State, it isn’t just a football move at this point, it is more like a cultural moment … He automatically brings eyes from a national audience to the program and almost a sense of pride to a program that is often overlooked… It brings an extra light, saying, ‘Look at what we are doing at these HBCUs. These are major programs.’”
“[Vick’s arrival] is a tremendous opportunity to spotlight our organization like we have never had before, to spotlight this institution,” Lehmbeck added. “A lot of times, HBCUs get overlooked, and a lot of times, it is treated in the media as if he or anybody else that comes to an HBCU is doing some sort of favor by coming to an HBCU, but we are changing that narrative a little bit. While HBCUs are portrayed as being marginalized, we want to spotlight the things that [Norfolk State] does have.”The Spartans now have the opportunity to showcase their newly renovated locker rooms and Dick Price Stadium, which is the sixth-largest in the FCS with 30,000 seats.
Both Norfolk State and Delaware State have consistently been named two of the top HBCUs in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.
“That is what we are trying to showcase, to show that our school is a perfect fit for Coach Vick, not just the other way around,” Lehmbeck said.
Just Another Wave of Media Attention?
The question is, does the Coach Prime formula have longevity, or does it signify just another passing wave of media attention?
It will all come down to the success Vick and Jackson have this season.
They will have to turn their programs around in the same way Sanders did. Delaware State went 1-11 overall and 0-5 in conference last season. Norfolk State went 4-8 overall and 2-3 in conference.
“Neither Norfolk State nor Delaware State have won very much on the gridiron, so bringing these coaches in excites their fanbases,” Williams said. “It certainly brings social media attention and primary media attention.
“ If DeSean Jackson wins three or four games, ESPN will be talking about how he turned the program around. If Michael Vick starts winning games, all of a sudden Norfolk State will start getting attention on those high-exposure platforms.”
But if the product “doesn’t match” the build-up, Hoffman said, “then the hype could potentially start to bow out.”
But if Vick and Jackson do have success this season, then it could signal a new, more permanent era of media attention for HBCU football.
“Norfolk State hasn’t won a MEAC championship in football in decades, nearly half a century, so if Vick is able to get them to contention for a MEAC championship, that will turn the city up in a way that it hasn’t been in half a century,” Hoffman said. “The sky's the limit in terms of the potential.”