When Morgan State beat Grambling at Yankee Stadium, more than the score was at stake
That 1968 day changed the game for HBCU football
BY LONNAE O'NEAL
Five months after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a football game between two historically black colleges opened another field of play in the civil rights movement.
The Sept. 28 battle between what were then Louisiana’s Grambling College Tigers and Baltimore’s undefeated Morgan State Bears at Yankee Stadium marked the first time two historically black colleges or universities (HBCUs) had played in New York City.
The game was a cultural high-water mark and a commercial success, and it brought dozens of players to the attention of an NFL that had only recently merged with the upstart AFL and was thirsty for black talent. But it also set loose a cascade of events that grievously hurt the caliber of football at historically black schools.
https://theundefeated.com/features/when-morgan-state-beat-grambling-at-yankee-stadium-more-than-the-score-was-at-stake/
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