The Texas Southern Tigers is the

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

team representing

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 ...

, a

historically black university 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 ...

(HBCU) in

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 ...

. The Tigers play in the NCAA's

Division I FCS The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic ...

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), a conference whose members are all HBCUs. In 2012, the Tigers moved into the new

PNC Stadium PNC Stadium (formerly BBVA Compass Stadium then BBVA 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 National Women's Soccer League ...

, 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 Canada ...

team, the

Houston Dynamo Houston Dynamo FC (formerly officially, but still commonly, called the Houston Dynamo) is an American professional soccer club based in Houston. The Dynamo compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Establi ...

. It replaced the

Alexander Durley Sports Complex Alexander Durley Sports Complex is a 5,500-seat multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas. It was home to the Texas Southern Tigers football team through the 2011 season. The facility is named after former Tiger head coach, Alexander Durley. In ...

as the home of Tiger football.

History

Classifications

* 1952–1972:

NCAA College Division The NCAA College Division was a historic subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) consisting of member schools competing at a lower level of college sports. The NCAA initially divided schools into a College Division and a ...

* 1952–1969: NAIA * 1970–1984: NAIA Division I * 1973–1976:

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

* 1977:

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

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

Conference memberships

* 1947–1951: Independent * 1952–1954:

Midwest Athletic Association The Midwest Athletic Association was an intercollegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that existed from 1926 to 1970. It was later known as the Midwest Conference from 1962 to 1963 and as the Midwestern ...

* 1955–present:

Football Classics

Labor Day Classic

The Tigers compete against the Panthers of Prairie View A&M in the

Labor Day Classic The Labor Day Classic is an annual American football "classic" which features Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University, two of Texas' largest historically black universities on Labor Day weekend. It is played at the BBVA Comp ...

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 The State Fair of Texas is an annual state fair held in Dallas at historic Fair Park. The fair has taken place every year since 1886 except for varying periods during World War I and World War II as well as 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ...

to play the Southern University Jaguars in Dallas in 2018 and 2019. The game will take place in October in the

Cotton Bowl Stadium The Cotton Bowl is an outdoor stadium in Dallas, Texas, United States. Opened in 1930 as Fair Park Stadium, it is on the site of the State Fair of Texas, known as Fair Park. The Cotton Bowl was the longtime home of the annual college football p ...

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 AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

, including: *

Michael Strahan Michael T. Strahan ( ; born November 21, 1971) is an American television personality, journalist, and former professional football player. He played his entire 15-year professional career as a defensive end for the New York Giants of the Nation ...

°° * Tray Walker *

Julius Adams Julius Adams (April 26, 1948 – March 24, 2016) was an American professional football player who spent his entire career as a defensive lineman for the New England Patriots in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football ...

Melvin Baker Melvin Clyde Baker (born August 12, 1950) is a former American football wide receiver who played three seasons in the National Football League with the Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, San Diego Chargers, New England Patriots and Houston Oil ...

* Ken Burrough * Greg Briggs *

Ernie Calloway Ernest Henry Calloway (born January 1, 1948) is a former American football defensive lineman who played four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Eagles in the second round of the 1969 N ...

* Arthur Cox * John Douglas * James Ford *

Harold Hart Harold Jerome Hart (born July 13, 1952) is a former American football running back who played four seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Oakland Raiders and New York Giants. He was drafted by the Raiders in the eleventh round o ...

* W. K. Hicks *

Winston Hill Winston Cordell Hill (October 23, 1941 – April 26, 2016) was an American professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL), primarily with the New York Jets. ...

°° *

Ernie Holmes Earnest Lee Holmes (July 11, 1948 – January 17, 2008) was an American football defensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons, primarily with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Nicknamed "Fats", he was selected by the ...

* Kevin Johnson *

Brett Maxie Brett Derrell Maxie (born January 13, 1962) is an American football coach and former player who is a defensive backs coach of the National Football League (NFL). He was a defensive back for 13 seasons for the NFL's New Orleans Saints, Atlanta F ...

* Will Moore * Cortez Hankton * Jim Sorey * John White *

Jim Young James Norman Young (born June 6, 1943) is a former professional American football and Canadian football player. Young played running back and wide receiver for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings for two seasons (1965–66), and the CFL's BC Lions f ...

* Darvin Kidsy * Joseph Rogers * Oliver Celestine * Andy Olemgbe * Joey Jamison °° 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