This one’s 140 years in making
PRAIRIE VIEW – Coach Willie Simmons describes it as his program’s “chance to make history,” when Prairie View A&M takes on its slightly older, much bigger brother Texas A&M at 11 a.m. Saturday at Kyle Field.
“We definitely have our hands full,” Simmons said.
When the Panthers sprint from Kyle’s tunnel and the first kickoff sails through the morning air, however, Prairie View A&M already will have made history just by playing the game. The contest between the “A&Ms,” separated by 50 miles of country road, marks the first
time the state’s two oldest public universities will face each other in football.
“This is a unique game,” Texas A&M defensive lineman Kingsley Keke said of the non-football history between the two schools. “And we know Prairie View is going to be pumped to play us.”
Indeed, and considering Texas A&M has in its longago past faced opponents like Galveston Ball High, Houston YMCA and a now defunct college dubbed Daniel Baker, a showdown with a much more challenging brethren — truly a system brethren — seems overdue.
When Texas A&M needed to fill a gap in its schedule, A&M system chancellor John Sharp worked to bring together the two schools connected by highways 290 and 6 northwest of Houston.
As Sharp explained, if A&M will pay a program like Sam Houston State of the Football Championship Subdivision — which the Aggies have played host to on three occasions in the past two decades — it might as well pay one of its own in the FCS. It helps that Prarie View is bringing its famed “Marching Storm” band for a halftime performance at Kyle, as well.
“Let’s keep it in the system,” Sharp said. A chance for Green
Doing so allows Prairie View star quarterback Trey Green a chance to perform in one of college football’s ballyhooed settings in his senior season.
“They’re phenomenal for putting us on their schedule,” Green said.
Prairie View considers the payout phenomenal, too, for less than an hour trip up the road. The Aggies are paying the Panthers $450,000 plus 400 complimentary tickets. Prairie View fans have bought about 1,000 more as of Wednesday, according to Texas A&M spokesman Alan Cannon.
Sharp was instrumental in helping Prairie View build a $61 million stadium, which it opened Sunday night on national television in a 29-25 comeback victory over rival Texas Southern.
The chancellor, a Texas A&M graduate, hasn’t been shy about airing his affection for Prairie View, a scenic school enveloping a rolling hill and covering about 1,500 acres in Waller County.
“In all of our 11 universities,” Sharp said of the A&M system spread across the state, “I don’t have another one as pretty as Prairie View.”
The schools’ ties that bind reach back 140 years, when Texas A&M was founded in 1876, and Praire View shortly after in the same year. Prairie View, known as Alta Vista at the time, was created as part of Reconstruction following the Civil War, as separate Texas “Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges” were built.
Prairie View and its more than 8,000 students are part of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), and the Panthers have competed in the Southwestern Athletic Conference for nearly a century.
Prairie View (1-0) finished 8-2 last season in Simmons’ debut, a threevictory improvement from 2014. Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said that’s exactly why the 20thranked Aggies (1-0), aren’t looking ahead to their Sept. 17 Southeastern Conference opener at Auburn.
“Prairie View averaged 45 points per game last year,” Sumlin said. “These guys went up and down the field on everybody they played. Willie Simmons has done a great job there – he’s got an aggressive style of defense and the top scoring FCS team in the country last year. We’ve got some challenges that will get your attention, and I don’t care who you’re playing, if you’re averaging 45 points per game, you’re doing something right.” Leaving streak behind
Such praise is music to the ears of Prairie View president George C. Wright, who arrived at Prairie View not long after the program posted the longest losing streak (80 games) in Division I football history, stretching from 1989-98.
“The coaches we played against back then had two goals: one was to win a championship, and two was not to lose to Prairie View, because that would cost them their job,” Wright said.
Wright will enjoy Simmons’ budding program taking center stage in another rebuilt stadium — this one at the flagship A&M before close to 100,000 fans.
“They have the ‘12th Man’ and it’s one of the most intimidating places to play in all of college football,” said Simmons, who added that he’s preached “overcoming adversity” to his players all week, no matter the setting. “We need to make sure we’re able to communicate, and do all the little things it takes to be successful against a team like Texas A&M.”