Recorded Feb. 25, 2021.
A book discussion with Drs. Derrick B. White and J. Kenyatta Cavil about Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the history of HBCU football.
About this Event
In this special Black History Month edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite’s Black Book Discussions, we celebrate the contributions of HBCU sports with conversation between Dr. J. Kenyatta Cavil, scholar and host of Inside the HBCU Sports Lab, and Dr. Derrick E. White, author of Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the History of Black College Football and co-host of The Black Athlete Podcast .
About the author:
Born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, Dr. White earned his Ph.D. in history from The Ohio State University. He uses the lens of Black organizational life to examine modern Black history, sports history, and intellectual history. His most recent book, Blood, Sweat, and Tears chronicles the development of black college football in the twentieth century, and is among the first comprehensive histories of black college athletics. Using the biography of Alonzo “Jake” Gaither and the history of the football program at Florida A&M University (FAMU), he shows how black college football and its supporters created successful programs during segregation by relying on a network of athletic enthusiasts in the media, on campuses, and in the community. Dr. White has published articles in New Politics, The Journal of African American History, the C.L.R. James Journal, the Journal of African American Studies, and the Florida Historical Quarterly. He is co-host “The Black Athlete Podcast” with Professor Louis Moore, Grand Valley State University, and I tweet from @blackstar1906.
About the book:
Black college football began during the nadir of African American life after the Civil War. The first game occurred in 1892, a little less than four years before the Supreme Court ruled segregation legal in Plessy v. Ferguson. In spite of Jim Crow segregation, Black colleges produced some of the best football programs in the country. They mentored young men who became teachers, preachers, lawyers, and doctors–not to mention many other professions–and transformed Black communities. But when higher education was integrated, the programs faced existential challenges as predominantly white institutions steadily set about recruiting their student athletes and hiring their coaches. Blood, Sweat, and Tears explores the legacy of Black college football, with Florida A&M’s Jake Gaither as its central character, one of the most successful coaches in its history. A paradoxical figure, Gaither led one of the most respected Black college football programs, yet many questioned his loyalties during the height of the civil rights movement.
Among the first broad-based histories of Black college athletics, Derrick E. White’s sweeping story complicates the heroic narrative of integration and grapples with the complexities and contradictions of one of the most important sources of Black pride in the twentieth century.
About the host:
Dr. Cavil is a prominent voice on the business and leadership of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and a specialist on the HBCU Sports Culture paradigm. He is the author of Early Athletic Experiences at HBCUs: The Creation of Conferences. From an Africana-centered framework of HBCU athletics, he teaches about consumer behavior in HBCU athletics, strategic management, vision and leadership in HBCU athletic programs, and the contextualization of critical race theory in the Sporting HBCU Diaspora. He has published research articles such as The State of Intercollegiate Athletics at Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs): Past, Present, & Persistence, completed commission studies such as, HBCU (A Minimum of Nine, A Maximum of 12) Football Reclassification & New HBCU FBS Conference Formation Study, presentations such as, Athletic Director’s Leadership Perception of Variable Determining the Effectiveness of Administering HBCU Athletic Programs, and a book chapter titled: The Case for Tennessee State as an expansion member of the SWAC: Economic Impact. Dr. Cavil has written articles for College Sporting News (CSN) and I-AA.org magazines. Recently, Cavil was also one of the four authors among Billy Hawkins, Joseph Cooper, and Akilah Carter-Francique which edited the textbook The Athletic Experience at Historically Black Colleges and Universities – Past, Present, and Persistence. He currently produces Dr. Cavil’s HBCU Sports Top 10 Mid-Major and Major Polls as well as the Dr. Cavil’s ‘Inside the HBCU Sports Lab” radio show. He is a HBCU sport business analyst on several radio programs across the country with the HBCU Sports Report.
