The Texas Southern Tigers is the college football team representing Texas Southern University, a historically black university (HBCU) in

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

. The Tigers play in the NCAA's Division I FCS 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 ...

(SWAC), a conference whose members are all HBCUs. In 2012, the Tigers moved into the new PNC Stadium, built for the city's

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

team, the Houston Dynamo. It replaced the Alexander Durley Sports Complex as the home of Tiger football.

History

Classifications

* 1952–1972: NCAA College Division * 1952–1969: NAIA * 1970–1984: NAIA Division I * 1973–1976: NCAA Division II * 1977:

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

* 1978–present: NCAA Division I-AA/FCS

Conference memberships

* 1947–1951: Independent * 1952–1954: Midwest Athletic Association * 1955–present:

Football Classics

Labor Day Classic

The Tigers compete against the Panthers of Prairie View A&M in the Labor Day Classic for the Durley-Nicks Trophy. The popular football rivalry began in 1946 but the classic was created in 1985.

Texas State Fair Football Showdown

Texas Southern University agreed to a major deal with the city of

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 ...

and the Texas State Fair to play the Southern University Jaguars in Dallas in 2018 and 2019. The game will take place in October in the Cotton Bowl Stadium during the Texas State Fair.

TV Broadcasting

In July 2017, Texas Southern renewed their deal with AT&T SportsNet (formerly ROOT Sports Southwest) to televise all home football games. The cable channel reaches over 13 million households.

Championships

National

Conference championships

Alumni in the NFL

Over 60 Texas Southern alumni have played in the NFL or AFL, including: * Michael Strahan°° *

Tray Walker Tray Walker (August 5, 1992 – March 18, 2016) was an American professional football player who was a cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Texas Southern Tigers, and was ...

* Julius Adams * Melvin Baker * Ken Burrough *

Greg Briggs Greg Briggs (born October 19, 1968) is a former American football safety in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings. He was also a member of the Frankfurt Galaxy in Frankfur ...

* Ernie Calloway * Arthur Cox * John Douglas * James Ford * Harold Hart *

W. K. Hicks Wilmer Kenzie Hicks (born July 14, 1942) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a defensive back for the American Football League (AFL)'s Houston Oilers (1964–1969, and for the National Football League (N ...

* Winston Hill°° * Ernie Holmes *

Kevin Johnson Kevin Johnson may refer to: Entertainment *Kevin Johnson (singer) (born 1942), Australian singer * Kevin Johnson (ventriloquist) (born 1970), ventriloquist on ''America's Got Talent'' * Kevin Royal Johnson (born 1961), American singer-songwriter a ...

* Brett Maxie * Will Moore *

Cortez Hankton Cortez Hankton (born January 20, 1981) is a former American football wide receiver who is currently the wide receivers coach at LSU. He was originally signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2003. He played college f ...

Jim Sorey James Arthur "Bull" Sorey (September 5, 1936 – August 12, 2008) was an American football defensive tackle who played three seasons with the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League (AFL). He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the fourteent ...

* John White * Jim Young *

Darvin Kidsy Darvin Kidsy Jr. (born March 19, 1995) is an American football wide receiver who is currently a free agent. He played college football at North Texas and Texas Southern. He has also been a member of the Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks, Sas ...

* Joseph Rogers * Oliver Celestine * Andy Olemgbe *

Joey Jamison Joey may refer to: People *Joey (name) Animals * Joey (marsupial), an infant marsupial * Joey, a Blue-fronted Amazon parrot who was one of the Blue Peter pets Film and television * ''Joey'' (1977 film), an American film directed by Horace ...

°° Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee

2012 NCAA sanctions

In October 2012, the NCAA found Texas Southern University guilty of repeated rules violations in 13 sports over a seven-year period from 2005 to 2012. The most serious violations occurred within the football and men's basketball programs, involving academic fraud, illicit benefits given to student athletes, lying on the part of coaches, and lying to the NCAA about previously self-imposed sanctions. Prior to the NCAA's verdict, the school had taken numerous corrective measures—including the April 2011 firing of football coach Johnnie Cole (2010 SWAC Football Coach of the Year) and vacating every game that the Tiger football team had won from 2006 to 2010 - including the 2010 SWAC Championship, their first championship in 42 years. The NCAA banned TSU's football team from the 2013 and 2014 postseason.

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, 2012-10-09.

References

External links

* {{Texas Southern University American football teams established in 1947 1947 establishments in Texas