The Labor Day Classic is an annual

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

"classic" which features

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...

and

Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU or PV) is a public historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two land-grant universities and the second oldest public institution of higher learnin ...

, two of Texas' largest

historically black universities Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

Labor Day weekend Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

. It is played at the

BBVA Compass Stadium Shell Energy Stadium (formerly BBVA Compass Stadium, BBVA Stadium, then PNC Stadium) is an American multi-purpose stadium located in Houston, Texas that is home to Houston Dynamo FC, a Major League Soccer club, the Houston Dash of the Nation ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

or in th
New Panther Stadium
in

Prairie View, Texas Prairie View is a city in Waller County, Texas, United States, situated on the northwestern edge of the metropolitan area. The population was 8,184 at the 2020 census. Prairie View A&M University, the second oldest public university in Texas, i ...

, depending on the hosting team. The classic is always the first matchup between two SWAC teams of the football season. The first game between the two schools was in 1947. However, the classic began in 1985. In 1990, Texas Southern played and defeated the Hampton University Pirates since Prairie View A&M did not field a football team that year. The schools compete for the Durley-Nicks Trophy named after the two most legendary coaches from both schools. Alexander Durley is the winningest head football coach in Texas Southern football history. Billy Nicks, Sr. won five mythical black college national championships (last being in 1968) as head coach at Prairie View A&M. The classic is accompanied by a fellowship luncheon/press conference hosted by The Touchdown Club of Houston, a golf tournament,

pep rallies A pep rally or pep assembly is a gathering of people, typically students of middle school, high school, and college age, before a sports event. The purpose of such a gathering is to encourage school spirit and to support members of the team. It ...

tailgating Tailgating is the action of a driver driving behind another vehicle while not leaving sufficient distance to stop without causing a collision if the vehicle in front stops suddenly. The safe distance for following another vehicle varies depend ...

, various social mixers, and a highly anticipated battle of the bands on Friday and Saturday night between Texas Southern's Ocean of Soul and Prairie View's Marching Storm. The 2017 Labor Day Classic was postponed because of the effects of

Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey was a devastating Category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest t ...

. The game was moved to the end of the season, joining two other games featuring SWAC teams, the

Turkey Day Classic The Turkey Day Classic is a college football game, traditionally held annually on Thanksgiving Day. Originally, it was played between Alabama State University and Tuskegee University, two historically black universities. The game was originally pl ...

and

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 ...

, on Thanksgiving weekend. The 2018 Labor Day Classic was postponed to the final game of the regular season. Prairie View A&M played in the

MEAC/SWAC Challenge The MEAC/SWAC Challenge is an annual historically black college (HBCU) football game showcasing a team from each of the two NCAA Division I conferences made up entirely of HBCUs—the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Athle ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

on Labor Day Weekend. In 2020, the SWAC postponed all fall play due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, which forced the Labor Day Classic to be played in March for the first time in the series. PVvsTSU3621CovidEdition-6

Game results

References

{{Southwestern Athletic Conference football rivalry navbox College football rivalries in the United States Texas Southern Tigers football Prairie View A&M Panthers football American football in Houston Black college football classics 1947 establishments in Texas

Game results

See also

References