The medical crisis impacting the nation and the world has caused sports across the globe to come to a standstill for the time being. For example, the Olympics scheduled for the summer of 2020 in Japan has been postponed until 2021.
While we wait on the sports world to get back on track, this is a good time to revisit the illustrious past of Morgan Athletics. Over the next few weeks we will tap into the archives for historic game recaps and stories.
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On December 10, 1966, the Morgan State College Bears defeated the West Chester (Pa.) State College Rams, 14-6, for win number 18 of what would become a 31-game winning streak. Under the leadership of College Football Hall of Fame coach Earl Banks, Morgan State was one of the winningest college football teams – regardless of race – of the 1960s (71-16-1). In addition, 41 players from Banks' teams went on to play professional football, including 1966 Tangerine Bowl Most Valuable Player and future NFL Hall of Fame middle-linebacker Willie Lanier.
After finishing the 1965 regular season undefeated, the underdog Bears trounced FAMU, 36-7, in the Orange Blossom Classic, a game many considered to be the "Black National Championship Game." Despite that victory and another undefeated regular season in 1966, small college polls around the nation ignored Morgan State. Gridiron experts wrote them off as simply a good team that beat up on weak Historically Black College and University opponents. Feeling slighted and craving a chance to gain national recognition, Morgan had something to prove.
So did Orlando.
For years, the Tangerine Bowl Commission had fought with the operators of the bowl to allow integrated games. In 1958, the University at Buffalo had declined a Tangerine Bowl invitation because the team refused to play without its two African-American players. In 1966, two decades after Jackie Robinson broke the national baseball color barrier and one decade after boys played the first integrated Little League Baseball game below the Mason-Dixon line at nearby Lake Lorna Doone Park, Orlando was finally ready to host its first integrated college bowl game.
The Bears never trailed, as Roland Savage capped an 80-yard scoring drive with a one-yard rush into the end zone. After Daryl Johnson converted the extra point, Morgan took a 7-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. A national television audience watched as Morgan and West Chester remained locked into a tough defensive battle throughout the second half. With a little over three minutes left in the game, Jeff Queen intercepted Rams' quarterback Jim Haynie and returned it 11 yards for a touchdown to give the Bears a 14-point lead. Haynie answered back with a touchdown pass to Don Wilkinson, but an attempted onside kick on the ensuing kickoff was recovered by Morgan State to seal the victory.
Along with the victory came the national recognition. At the time, the Tangerine Bowl was the East Regional Championship game of the NCAA College Division. Morgan State was not only the best small college in the east, it was the first - and only - HBCU to ever achieve the distinction.
▪️ Photos supplied by U.S. Air Force team Dewayne Wickham and Ron Donaldson.
It all started here as Morgan won 14-6 decision in Orlando battle
Bears' Ed Hayes (46) intercepted West Chester pass as Charlie Randall watches
And it ended here with West Chester still fighting
Rams' crack end Don Wilkinson leaps high for TD pass with 31 seconds to go
Earl Banks (left) and assistant Nat Taylor advise end Alvin Mitchell (85)
Kicking played major role in pioneer win at Tangerine Bowl
Morgan's Isaac Jackson gets off booking punt which averaged 52 yards for day
Fine blocking set up ground attack that provided victory
Tom Dean (63) leads way as quarterback Daryl Johnson hands to George Nock (41)
Official Morgan family happily views proceedings as President Martin Jenkins (right) shown with
Mrs. Frances Henderson, PR director; Mrs. Martin Jenkins, Miss Yolando Pino,
Miss Angela Flanagan (Miss Morgan), left to right.
Bear Notes:
• On January 1, 2016 ten members of the "Golden Bears" went back to central Florida and watched as Michigan dismantled Florida 41-7 in the Buffalo Wild Wings Florida Citrus Bowl. They were honored on the field during the first quarter to resounding applause.
• In the 50 years since the Bears took the field against Westchester the demographics of what was known then as the Tangerine Bowl has changed. The Wolverines and Gators fielded teams of mostly Black athletes who were revered in the buildup to the game.
• The Bears were in the midst of a historic streak after winning the 18th of 31 consecutive games and second of four CIAA championships before truly making history as the first Historically Black College to win a postseason bowl game.
• The impact of their legacy goes beyond a championship season as the Bears played in the first integrated college football game in Orlando's history.
• "You knew that it was the first time that you individually had played an all white team," Willie Lanier said. "Most of us grew up playing in segregated school systems. You were aware that our country was going through change, that our country was having its own upheaval, in terms of how race was being dealt with in the South, in Birmingham, in Mississippi. But it was still a football game you came to play, against a team that just happened to be all white."
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ABOUT MORGAN
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 100 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland's Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.
