HOWARD ATHLETICS


Jay Walker led Howard to an 11-1 record in 1993 along with the MEAC football title and a berth in the I-AA (now FCS) playoffs.

Former Howard star quarterback Jay “Sky” Walker was officially inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame earlier this month in Atlanta.

Walker, whose birth name is Jewel Jacobia Walker, has carved out quite a sports broadcasting career since his playing days ended. He doesn’t know me from Adam, but it’s because of him and the rest of the 1993 Howard football team that made me realize HBCU sports was the place to be.

I was working at Maryland Public Television and freelancing as a sports writer for The Afro in Baltimore. The company had a magazine called “Every Wednesday.” I could cover anything I wanted as long as I made my deadline.

Not knowing anything about HBCUs, except that Morgan State and Coppin State had campuses in the area, I covered the University of Maryland and the Washington Bullets (now Wizards).

The ACC was king during that time, and while the Bullets shot a lot of blanks, the beat had its perks like getting to see Michael Jordan up close and personal when the Bulls came to town.

Mind you, this was during a time when reporters interviewed players in locker rooms, and women were viewed as alien invaders.

I don’t remember how I wound up at Towson State (now Towson) that October afternoon in 1993. It was the Tigers’ homecoming, and Howard was the opponent.

The Bison were undefeated, but nobody gave them much of a chance since they had never beaten Towson which was nationally ranked that year. Some guests sitting behind me in the press box dismissed Howard’s record because it was just an HBCU playing other HBCUs.

Coming in, the Bison had easy wins over Virginia Union and Winston-Salem State before a 38-36 thriller against a Steve McNair-led Alcorn State team in Washington, D.C.
Florida A&M was easy prey, but Bethune-Cookman made Howard work to get to 5-0.

Then came Towson State. Walker threw two early interceptions and the Bison trailed 21-0 after the first quarter and 21-6 at the half.

But the Tigers made two mistakes.

First, they dissed Howard’s band. We all know the visiting band plays first. Towson’s band, which probably saw Howard perform somewhere, went first (think funeral home music) and used up all the time except about five minutes.

However, the few minutes Howard had to show off erased every horrible note Towson played.

The second mistake was thinking the game was over. Trailing by 17 in the third period, Walker put on his Superman jersey and went off to get Howard back in the game. Towson led 41-37 with less than two minutes left, but the Bison had the ball. You could hear a pin drop in the press box.

Walker methodically led Howard on a 69-yard drive that culminated in a touchdown pass to Germaine Kohn on FOURTH down with six seconds left. I screamed before I knew it.

As the Bison band shimmied and danced all the way to the team bus, a young white woman looked at me and said, “Why can’t we celebrate like that when we win?” I so wanted to tell her: first, you need another band.

How special was that team? In its next game, Howard again rallied from double digits in the fourth quarter to defeat N.C. A&T, which also was undefeated – in Greensboro. The 41-35 overtime classic is still called one of the greatest MEAC games ever.

Howard (11-1) finished undefeated in the conference before losing to Marshall in the Division I-AA (now FCS) playoffs.

That Towson game, however, was enough to convince me that I was working on the wrong side of the railroad tracks.

Bonitta Best is sports editor at The Triangle Tribune in Durham.

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