State Fair Classic
One of the fall’s most historic gridiron rivalries doesn’t involve Longhorns or Sooners.
Every fall, tens of thousands of football fans descend upon Dallas for one of football’s most intense rivalries. Throngs of people pour through the gates at the Texas State Fair hours before kickoff, often donning their colors for the festivities all weekend long.
One team, a storied and proud university with ties rooted deeply in the state. The other, an equally historic school from a neighboring state. Their identities are unique and fiercely independent, yet undeniably connected. A sibling rivalry of Shakespearean passions.
And every year, if only for a year, bragging rights begin and end at the Cotton Bowl gridiron. But if you think you know where this story goes, and who it involves, guess again.
Neither Longhorns nor Sooners command the passions of thousands on this weekend. It’s the Panthers of Prairie View A&M University and the Tigers of Grambling State University.
Dubbed the “State Fair Classic,” the meeting between the Prairie View A&M Panthers and Grambling State Tigers takes place the week before UT and OU meet for the Red River Rivalry. The fans are just as passionate and the stakes are just as high for each school.
Prairie View A&M and Grambling State enroll fewer than 13,000 students every year —— combined. But more than 50,000 pack the Cotton Bowl stadium to witness the historic rivalry between Southwestern Athletic Conference foes, which has taken place in Dallas since 1985.
But for Prairie View A&M, the history and significance of meeting at Fair Park dates back nearly a century. In fact, Prairie View A&M’s participation in the State Fair Classic predates the existence of the Cotton Bowl stadium altogether.
HOLD THAT TIGER Grambling State’s Tigers dominated Prairie View A&M for 17 straight seasons, from 1992 through 2008. Then, in 2009, Prairie View’s Panthers roared back to win, 35-32.
The Classic began in 1925 between Wiley University (located in Marshall, Texas) and Langston University (Langston, Okla.). The inaugural game resulted in a rousing 0-0 tie. Four years later, Prairie View A&M took over Langston’s spot in the game, possibly in an effort to reinvigorate an in-state rivalry. Or to give Wiley a chance to win, since they’d lost or tied every game up to that point.
And in an ironic fashion that only sports can deliver, the first meeting featuring Prairie View A&M resulted in another 0-0 barn burner. Over the next 50 years, Prairie View A&M remained the Classic’s resident home team, hosting varying combinations of Wiley, Bishop University, East Texas State and even Tennessee State University.
But Prairie View A&M’s participation in the game is more than just revelry. It’s an important part of a school whose heritage and existence defines a whole town. Nestled northwest of Houston and bisected by Highway 290, Prairie View owes its existence to the university.
In 1876, near the end of the post-Civil War reconstruction period, Prairie View A&M was established under the Morrill Act of 1862 as a historically black university. As the name suggests, the school was part of the larger Texas A&M University System, and actually opened its doors the same year as Texas A&M, making it the second-oldest public university in the state.
The school served an African-American population that was forbidden from attending A&M (all the way until 1963) but hungry to further their education. In a sign of resilience, strength and opportunity, Prairie View A&M was erected on top of cotton fields that once enslaved some 5,000 African-American Texans — an extraordinarily high number for one small county in the massive state.
The town of Prairie View grew around the institution of higher learning with a population almost exclusively tied to the school. Even today, the tiny community’s official population sits just below the school’s enrollment. The town mirrors the university’s largely African-American population, and both celebrate their 140th anniversary next year. They really do find identity in one another.
That can be seen in people like Alicia Pete. Originally a native of San Antonio, Pete moved to Prairie View as a basketball recruit for the school in 1987. She soon transitioned to the volleyball team, where she earned All-SWAC honors in the ’89 and ’90 seasons. She later returned for a master’s degree in 1997, also establishing the school’s bowling program.
In 1999, Pete took her dedication to Prairie View A&M back to the volleyball court, where she helped the team earn its first and second-ever berths in the NCAA Division I tournament. She finished as the most successful volleyball coach in the school’s history with 7 SWAC titles.
She was eventually named Prairie View A&M’s assistant athletic director for women’s sports. In a sign of mutual dedication, the university nominated Pete to the SWAC Hall of Fame, into which she was inducted in 2012 for her continuous contributions to a proud school and program. Pete’s transition from student-athlete to coach to administrator exemplifies the spirit of the school and how the community inspires growth from within. She also knows the Grambling rivalry well, taking part in it on three separate levels.
But Prairie View A&M’s athletics program suffered a debilitating blow the year after Pete finished her undergrad. After discovering the athletic department had dug itself into more than $3 million worth of debt, the school board suspended all sports except track and field.
Eventually, the school and community banded together to bring the athletics programs back through various donations and support — another testament to the mutual respect between the town and university.
Since Prairie View A&M’s return to the football field, the State Fair Classic continues to be an inspired and uniquely Texas affair. As can be expected when a program is completely rebuilding, the Panthers struggled mightily in their first years back from the early ’90s absence.
The team lost 80 straight games through 1998, the longest losing streak in NCAA football history. Despite his best efforts, then-coach Ronald Beard held the dubious distinction of losing all 44 games he coached in four years. It was a long, harsh fall from grace for a team that dominated in the ’50s and ’60s, sending several players to the NFL and winning multiple conference championships.
And to make matters more difficult, the hated Grambling State Tigers dominated Prairie View for 17 straight seasons, from 1992 through 2008. The Tigers match the Panthers in their pride and tradition, but never saw a decline quite like Prairie View A&M. But in the absence of particularly competitive games on the field during game time, a new rivalry formed during halftime.
TO THE BEAT OF THEIR OWN DRUMS The two teams’ bands face off every year in an energetic, contemporary style of marching that eventually inspired the Drumline film franchise.
Every year, the Prairie View A&M Marching Storm and Grambling’s “World Famed Tiger Marching Band” face off in one of the Classic’s most consistently exciting events. The bands’ energetic, contemporary style of marching mixes modern and classic forms of movements and music.
Band members transition from formation to formation, effortlessly flowing between their unique high step to traditional movements, then running into place for a dance number featuring modern moves and music.
The style gained so much popularity throughout the South, Hollywood eventually released the Drumline film franchise based around it — with its own Hollywood twists, of course. It’s a school tradition uniquely tied to historically black universities, and every year at the State Fair Classic, two of the finest face off in an exciting display of school and state pride.
For a while, the tongue-in-cheek joke was the fan base made sure to get their concessions during the game so they could be in their seats during halftime. But that all changed in 2009, when Prairie View A&M roared back into Southwestern Athletic Conference contention with a 35-32 victory.
Since then, the State Fair Classic has featured two of the SWAC’s best teams, with the Panthers holding a slight 4-3 edge. The resurgence even helped Prairie View A&M secure funding for a new $61 million home stadium opening just in time for the 2016 season.
Without a doubt, the State Fair Classic presents one of Texas’ most authentic football experiences in the whole state. While Texas and Oklahoma may command the big television crews and big coverage, the State Fair Classic showcases an immense community pride untainted by the allure of a national spotlight. The pep rallies, the festivities, the alumni events all bring the tiny Texas and Louisiana communities to Dallas in one of the largest social events for both schools.
Both know that when the state thinks of “State Fair” and “football,” Prairie View A&M and Grambling State aren’t the first schools to come to mind. But with the unique culture surrounding the State Fair Classic and the return to prominence for the two teams, that just may change.
