The Grambling State Tigers and Lady Tigers represent

Grambling State University Grambling State University (GSU, Grambling, or Grambling State) is a public historically black university in Grambling, Louisiana. Grambling State is home of the Eddie G. Robinson Museum and is listed on the Louisiana African American Heritage ...

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

intercollegiate athletics. Grambling's sports teams participate in Division I (I-FCS for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

) as a member of the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

(SWAC).

Sports sponsored

Baseball

Notable players

Tommie Agee Tommie Lee Agee (August 9, 1942 – January 22, 2001) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a center fielder from through , most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that became known as the ...

* Matt Alexander *

Courtney Duncan Courtney Duncan (born October 9, 1974), is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs from –. Amateur career Duncan graduated from Daphne High School in Alabama in 1993 ...

Ralph Garr Ralph Allen Garr (born December 12, 1945), nicknamed "Road Runner", is an American former professional baseball player, scout, and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder from through — most notably as a member of th ...

Johnny Jeter John Jeter (born December 14, 1981) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2006 as Johnny, a member of The Spirit Squad. Jeter was trained by Nick Dinsmore (also k ...

Lenny Webster Leonard Irell Webster (born February 10, 1965) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1989 to 2000. Webster was one of the active players wearing number 42 while playing for the Ba ...

* Gerald Williams *

Gary Eave Gary Louis Eave (born July 22, 1963) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Atlanta Braves (-) and Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Bas ...

Men's basketball

The Grambling State Tigers won the NAIA National championship tournament in

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

, beating Georgetown College (Ky.). The victory made Grambling State the first and only college basketball program in the state to win a national basketball championship. In the following years, the Tigers made it to the NAIA Final Four, and placed 3rd in

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

, and

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

, defeating Fort Hays State (Kan.) and Norfolk State (Va.) respectively. The Tigers appeared in the NAIA National Tournament eight times from

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

, with a total NAIA National Tournament record of 19–7. Former NBA star

Charles Hardnett Charles "Charlie Red" Hardnett (September 13, 1938 – July 6, 2019) was an American basketball player who played three seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 6' 8" power forward played for Carver High School Atlanta. He play ...

played for the National Championship Tiger team. The team has never played in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. In 2013, the Tigers went 0–28, with only one single-digit loss (an 8-point loss to

Alabama A&M Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. AAMU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshal ...

in the SWAC tournament). Grambling State's most popular and highest attended regular season basketball rivalries are against the Southern Jaguars and Prairie View A&M Panthers.

Women's basketball

Football

Grambling State plays its arch rival

Southern University Southern University and A&M College (Southern University, Southern, SUBR or SU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in Louisiana, a ...

in the annual

Bayou Classic The Bayou Classic is an annual college football classic rivalry game between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars, first held under that name in 1974 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, although the series it ...

, which is hosted at the

Louisiana Superdome The Caesars Superdome, commonly known as the Superdome (formerly known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome), is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

over Thanksgiving weekend and broadcast nationally on

NBCSN NBCSN was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated t ...

. GSU also plays in the annual

State Fair Classic The State Fair Classic (formerly known as the Southwest Airlines State Fair Classic, for sponsorship purposes) is an annual college football game between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Prairie View A&M University Panthers of th ...

against the Prairie View A&M Panthers at the Cotton Bowl, in

Fair Park Fair Park is a recreational and educational complex in Dallas, Texas, United States, located immediately east of downtown. The area is registered as a Dallas Landmark and National Historic Landmark; many of the buildings were constructed for th ...

, in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. Former football coach Eddie Robinson previously held the

record for most career wins as a head coach at an NCAA division I school. During Robinson's 55-year coaching career, the university gained a national reputation because of the large number of athletes who joined the professional ranks in football. After Robinson's retirement in 1997, former GSU standout and NFL

Super Bowl XXII Super Bowl XXII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Washington Redskins and American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for th ...

MVP Doug Williams took over the reins of the university's football program. Grambling has won fourteen black college national championships, tied for second most in the country (Robinson's teams won nine of those championships). The 1981 TV movie ''

Grambling's White Tiger ''Grambling's White Tiger'' (also released as ''White Tiger'' in Europe) is a 1981 TV movie about the true story of Jim Gregory (played by Caitlyn Jenner, credited as Bruce Jenner) the first white quarterback of the Grambling Tigers at Grambling ...

'' set in 1967, tells the true story of Jim Gregory, the first white Quarterback at Grambling. In October 2013, citing health hazards within the Grambling State athletic facilities and team mismanagement in a letter to the administration, the Grambling State football team refused to play their October 19 game against Jackson St., forfeiting the match up, resulting in a loss. The NCAA would later go on to announce the ruling on the game was officially declared a no contest. The Tigers would return for their very next game a week later against Texas Southern.

Notable players

Pro Football Hall of Fame members * Willie Brown *

Buck Buchanan Junious "Buck" Buchanan (September 10, 1940 – July 16, 1992) was an American professional football player who was a defensive tackle with the Kansas City Chiefs in the American Football League (AFL) and in the National Football League (NFL). ...

* Willie Davis *

Charlie Joiner Charles B. Joiner Jr. (born October 14, 1947) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. He is best known for his career w ...

Traditions

Grambling State's colors are

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

, with

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

as a tertiary color symbolizing the blood of people of African descent. The school's mascot is the Tiger. Grambling State's male athletes are traditionally referred to as "G-Men".

References

External links

* {{Authority control Sports in Grambling, Louisiana

Sports sponsored

Baseball

Notable players

Men's basketball

Women's basketball

Football

Notable players

Traditions

See also

References

External links