Labor Day Classic

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Labor Day Classic
Prairie View A&M PV Wordmark.png
Prairie View A&M Panthers
Texas Southern University box logo.png
Texas Southern Tigers
Sport Football
First meetingOctober 31, 1947
Texas Southern, 13–7
Latest meetingAugust 31, 2024
Texas Southern, 27–9
Next meeting2025
TrophyDurley-Nicks Trophy
Statistics
Meetings total80
All-time seriesTexas Southern leads, 45–34–1
Current win streakTexas Southern, 1 (2024−present)
Labor Day Classic
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Invisible Square.svg
Mapscaleline.svg
45km
30miles
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Texas Southern
Purple pog.svg
Prairie View A&M
Locations of Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern

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 BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston or Panther Stadium at Blackshear Field in Prairie View, Texas. The classic is always the first matchup between two Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) teams of the football season. [1]

Contents

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. [2]

The classic is accompanied by a fellowship luncheon/press conference hosted by The Touchdown Club of Houston, a golf tournament, pep rallies, tailgating, 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 2005 Labor Day Classic was postponed to Thanksgiving weekend due to many Hurricane Katrina relief efforts happening in Houston. An estimated 250,000 people from the New Orleans area evacuated to Houston seeking refuge from the major hurricane. [3] [4]

The 2017 Labor Day Classic was postponed because of the effects of Hurricane Harvey. The game was moved to the end of the season, once again joining two other games featuring SWAC teams, the Turkey Day Classic and Bayou Classic, on Thanksgiving weekend. [5]

The 2018 Labor Day Classic was postponed to the final game of the regular season. [6] Prairie View A&M played in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta, Georgia on Labor Day Weekend. [7]

In 2020, the SWAC postponed all fall play due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the Labor Day Classic to be played in March for the first time in the series.

The Labor Day Classic held in March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic PVvsTSU3621CovidEdition-6.jpg
The Labor Day Classic held in March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Game results

Prairie View A&M victoriesTexas Southern victoriesTie games

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Scoring Ledger : Labor Day Classic". www.pvamu.edu. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016.
  2. ↑ "About Us". Archived from the original on August 3, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
  3. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/29/houston-took-them-in-after-katrina-then-harvey-hit/ [ bare URL ]
  4. ↑ "Classic History". STATE FARM LABOR DAY CLASSIC. June 15, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Labor Day Classic XXXIII Will Be Played Saturday, November 25; #HoustonStrong Game Thursday - Prairie View A&M University". Prairie View A&M University.
  6. ↑ "2021 Football Schedule".
  7. ↑ "NCCU to Face Prairie View A&M in MEAC/SWAC Challenge".
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