FAMU celebrates historic 1967 HBCU football championship battle

FAMU Head Football Coach Jake Gaither in 1969.

Today, FAMU will celebrate the black athletes who played a pivotal role in tearing down racial barriers in American football.

Samuel G. Freedman, a professor in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, will moderate a forum in Lee Hall Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. The event, entitled “Breaking the Line,” is based on a book of the same name that Freedman authored.

The critically acclaimed book brings to life the historic saga of the battle for the 1967 black college football championship between head coaches Jake Gaither of FAMU and Eddie Robinson of Grambling. Both teams boasted two of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game: Ken Riley and James Harris.

According to the book’s official description, the coaches and quarterbacks in this championship battle “helped compel the segre­gated colleges of the South to integrate their teams and redefined who could play quarterback in the NFL, who could be a head coach, and who could run a franchise as general manager.”

Panelists in the discussion will include Eddie Jackson, former FAMU sports information officer and author of Coaching Against the Winds; Ken Riley, former FAMU quarterback; and Bobby Lang, former track coach. A book signing will take place in the lobby immediately following forum.