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Bayou Classic 2007
New Orleans, Louisiana
The State Farm Bayou Classic is the annual college football game between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars, first held in 1974 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since 1978 the game has been held the final Saturday in November at the New Orleans Superdome. A Waterford crystal trophy is awarded to the winning school. The game has had State Farm Insurance as its primary sponsor since 1996.
Southern leads the series 16-14 and also claims the longest winning streak, 8 games from 1993-2000. Grambling has won the last two Classics.
It is the best known game and rivalry in historically black college football and is televised in the USA by NBC, the only HBCU game to be shown nationally on broadcast television.
The festivities are also noted for the "Battle Of The Bands", where both school's marching bands stage elaborately choreographed performances at halftime and before and following the game.
The success of the Bayou Classic is a major source of tourism revenue to the city of New Orleans, and has inspired the promotion of numerous other HBCU rivalries as "Classics", often played at neutral sites in distant cities.
Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, organizers had to move the 2005 event from the Superdome to Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, where many of New Orleans' evacuees are currently living.
For more information on the Bayou Classic, please visit Wikipedia.
Bayou Classic - History
State Farm Bayou Classic is the biggest college football game in Black America. But it's not only a football game-there are other events just as popular and exciting as the main game on Sutarday. According to the New Orleans Multicultural Tourism Network (NOMTN) numbers have increased to 200-250,000 visitors and $200-$300 million dollars in economic impact, annually. The traditional game is a gridiron match-up between Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) rivals Grambling and Southern Universities (both Louisiana schools with proud HBCU traditions), and has been taking place in New Orleans since it first moved to Tulane Stadium in 1974.
The first year, 76,753 fans attended, and Grambling won 21-0. Since then, the event has moved to the New Orleans Superdome. Last year, Southern won the game 44-41. Southern leads the series 16-14, and had an 8-game winning streak that ended in 2001 (the longest streak in the Bayou Classic Series). This year, the event (which has given birth to at least 13 other major black college classics) will be the series' 31st.
This year, the Bayou Classic festivities kick off on Friday, Nov. 26 with the annual Super Job Fair. This job fair is for students of both Grambling and Southern to get a head start on internships or the jobs of their dreams, and help them break into today's difficult job market. The fair will be held at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans in the French Market Exhibition Hall, and will run from noon until 5 P.M.
On Friday night, fans will pack into the Superdome for the Bayou Classic's most popular event of the weekend: the legendary Battle of the Bands. The two universities' exceptional marching bands-two of the country's best-will duke it out to see which band reigns supreme for this year. Southern's band, the "Human Jukebox," is directed by Dr. Isaac Greggs, who got his Bachelor's degree at Southern. "The Mighty Tiger Marching Band," directed by Dr. Larry Pannell, is Grambling's equally stupendous band. Along with the Battle of the Bands is the Greek Step Show, where fraternities and sororities of the two schools compete for cash prizes.
Saturday is Game Day, but that's not all-the Superdome holds an all-day Fan Festival for game-goers and fans of the two teams. The game generally draws around 70,000 fans for one of the biggest college games of the year. Kickoff is at 1 PM, and then fans can see which team will have bragging rights until next year!