BLUEFIELD, WV — History took a deep breath and exhaled at Mitchell Stadium on Saturday afternoon in an HBCU homecoming win that was a long-time-coming. Bluefield State University, the tiny West Virginia-based HBCU that once vanished from the football map, earned its first CIAA win since 1954 with a thrilling 35–33 victory over Shaw University.
That’s right — seventy-one years between CIAA wins. For an HBCU that dropped football for four decades, left the conference amid desegregation, and rejoined a few years ago only to go winless, this was more than a just a homecoming win. It was a resurrection.
A Day for the Big Blue Faithful
The Big Blue started the afternoon like a program tired of waiting on history. On Shaw’s first play from scrimmage, defensive back Zaire Riley jumped a route and took it 34 yards to the house for a pick-six. That tone-setting play was followed by a 34-yard touchdown strike from Brice Koontz to Tyler Wilson, a safety, and a 70-yard punt return touchdown from Ja’Shawn Harris that gave Bluefield State a 22–7 lead after one quarter.
Shaw clawed back behind Fabian Diggs and Alexander Marsh, cutting the lead to 22–19 by halftime and briefly taking control with a third-quarter score to go up 26–22. But this time, the Big Blue didn’t fold.
Koontz, who threw for 234 yards and three touchdowns, led a pair of clutch drives — including a 98-yard march capped by a 21-yard strike to Reginald Hairston and a fourth-quarter dagger to Julian Crawley. When Shaw answered late to pull within two, Bluefield State recovered the onside kick and knelt out a victory decades in the making.
For second-year head coach Davon Morgan, the moment was as emotional as it was validating.
“Proud of my guys and how we bounced back. First CIAA win in 50 years! It’s never easy changing a program but we trust the process,” Morgan said via Twitter.
Morgan, a former Virginia Tech safety who played in the NFL, took over a team that went winless in 2023 and endured a 91–0 loss to Virginia Union last fall. Instead of letting that define them, he and his team have continued to grind. Saturday’s performance — complete with seven sacks and relentless energy — showed that the belief has finally caught up to the talent.
HBCU Football God’s Smile on Bluefield State
For the broader HBCU football world, Bluefield State’s win stands as a reminder that progress sometimes moves slowly but still moves. The Big Blue’s long road back to relevance underscores what makes HBCU sports special. It faces many odds deep in the hills of West Virginia, with location being one of its many obstacles. Though it is an HBCU, its student-population is still majority white and many people often confuse it with a school ten minutes down the road with the same first name in Virginia.
But — if only for a moment — none of that mattered on Saturday. It was as if the HBCU football gods looked down on Bluefield State and rewarded the program for its perseverance.