04/14/2024
This is a champion’s story.
Sixty-seven years after becoming champions, a group of HBCU athletes finally got the chance to visit the White House.
The Tennessee A&I Tigers from Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University in Nashville made history in 1957 by becoming the first HBCU team to win a national championship and the first college team to win three back-to-back national titles from 1957-1959.
However, their journey to this much-belated visit was not without obstacles. The team faced a bomb threat on their plane during their return trip home from Kansas City following their victory at the NAIA championship game in 1957. Which canceled their visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Recently, Mr. Barnett, George Finley, Ernest Jones, Henry Carlton, Robert Clark, and Ron Hamilton attended a private ceremony at the White House, where Vice President Kamala Harris paid homage to the team during a round-table discussion in the Roosevelt Room.
During the event, Harris expressed her gratitude and admiration, stating, “There’s so much that we have accomplished as a nation because of the heroes like those that I’m looking at right now. I, like so many of us, stand on your broad shoulders, each one of you.”
If you want to know more about this championship-winning team, you can read the full story at ESSENCE.com.
