By 1950, Tuskegee asserted its national dominance in the form of six HBCU titles (1925-27, 1929, 1930) and Morgan State evened dynasties with six national championships (1933, 1937, 1943-44, 1946, 1949). The Atlanta Daily World (1953-92) debuted on the selector circuit in 1953 and awarded the very first HBCU Football title trophy named after their founder, the W.A. Scott Memorial Trophy. Long-time CIAA statistician and NCCU basketball coach, John B. McLendon used the popular Dickinson Football Rating System to determine 8-0-1 Tennessee A&I as 1953 champion.
A record of five HBCUs were crowned national champions during the 1954 season. ADW named 8-1 Florida A&M (SIAC champ), 10-1 Southern, 10-1 Tennessee A&I (Midwestern champ), and 10-1 Prairie View (SWAC champion, W.A. Scott Memorial Trophy holder) their top champions. The Pittsburgh Courier named 7-1-1 North Carolina College (now NC Central) kings after a postseason upset over Tennessee A&I in the National Classic. The 10-0 Florida A&M Rattlers were named the 1962 Associated Press College Division Poll National Champions, making it the first time a white media outlet voted for a black college national champ.
The early 1960s brought hard times for the Pittsburgh Courier as the newspaper struggled to circulate nationally and the IRS forced them to close due to tax payment failures. A publisher from the Chicago Daily Defender, John H. Sengstacke caught wind of the historic decline and bought the Pittsburgh Courier assets in 1965. Sengstacke would be widely known as the owner of the largest collection of Black newspaper companies.
The lineage of the original Courier would be relaunched by Sengstacke in 1966 as the New Pittsburgh Courier. The NPC awarded its first HBCU grid title to the 10-0 Tennessee A&I Tigers. This same 1966 Tennessee A&I team was the first HBCU to win a NCAA regional bowl game (1966 Grantland Rice Bowl versus Muskingum College) and be voted as HBCU national champion in the same season. When the New Pittsburgh Courier gave Tennessee A&I the 1966 title, Big Blue surpassed Tuskegee’s record with six HBCU titles (1946-47, 1953-56, 1965-66).
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