The best thing about Saturdays in the Fall aren’t the rivalries on the football field, bands in the stands, or bragging rights won. Those are all awesome. But what makes Fall Saturdays truly special are the people we share those moments with.
For over 16 years, the Bethune-Cookman/South Carolina State game has held a very special space in my heart. Not only because it usually guarantees a great game of football on the field with BCU winning 6 and losing 7 since 2010.
For me, it also guaranteed one other thing:
My phone was going to ring.
But it hasn’t rung this week.
And I know it’s not going to.
This will be the first BCU/SCSU matchup I’ve experienced without my colleague, fellow HBCU football aficionado and diehard Bulldog, Brad Gillens, better known throughout the old MEACFans community as SCSUDog4Life.
Brad wasn’t merely a passionate South Carolina State fan. He was my brother.
Calling him simply a writer or contributor to HailWildcats.com doesn’t tell the full story. Brad helped shape this thing. He helped expand our network and build relationships. Long before HBCU sports coverage became as popular and accessible as it is today, we were part of a small community who talked about, wrote about, debated about and sought to preserve the amazing history of HBCU football and shine a spotlight on our favorite teams.
Sometime during South Carolina State week, the phone would ring. Then the trash talking would start. Our wives would have to endure hours of us reliving this matchup as if either one of us were getting ready to strap up the shoulder pads and play on Saturday.
I would inevitably remind Brad about the 2006 Jarod Rucker 5 touchdown game in which BCU scored 45 unanswered points after trailing 21-0 to get the win in Charleston.
He would remind me of 2014 when Javon Hargrave racked up 6 sacks and 6 tackles for loss in a 20-14 Bulldog win.
I would talk about 2010 when BCU marched into Oliver C. Dawson Stadium undefeated and faced a South Carolina State team sitting at No. 10 in the country. The Bulldogs had won 21 straight games and 13 straight at home at that point.
The Wildcats walked out with a 14-0 victory.
He wouldn’t let me enjoy it for long and would quickly point out that the very next season in Daytona, SCSU turned the tables. Late in that game, senior defensive back Dominique Ellis picked off a Wildcat pass and took it 55 yards to the house, sealing the game for the Bulldogs.
That’s what we did:
BCU story.
SC State story.
Wildcat win.
Bulldog comeback.
One memory led to another until a phone call about Saturday’s game became a three-hour history lesson about the beauty of this matchup and Black College Football as a whole.
After the game, win or lose, he would swing by the tailgate to get his own freshly made batch of my grandma’s broccoli cornbread. You heard that right, skillet cornbread with broccoli and cheese baked into it.
It’s delightful!
That’s what this rivalry became for us. The football gave us an excuse to argue, but underneath the trash talk was almost two decades of friendship, family, memories and a shared love for HBCU sports.
Honestly, I knew this week would be hard with him gone so I booked a cruise to get away.
But you can’t cruise away from memories.
And here I am. Just stepping off the cruise ship just a few days from game day, but the phone still hasn’t rung.
There are moments after losing someone when your mind understands something that it also won’t completely accept. You know the call isn’t coming, but some part of you still waits for one more conversation, one more joke, one more argument about a football game.
That’s the part nobody prepares you for. You don’t just miss the person; you miss the routines that belonged to them…the hangouts, the jokes, the stories you’ve told 100 times but still enjoy telling.
On Saturday, another chapter will be added to a series Brad and I spent years debating. But this one will be different for me.
Thankfully, our friendship grew beyond football a long time ago. My family became his family, and his family became mine.
So while the phone won’t ring this week with SCSUDog4Life on the other end, there will be a phone call Sunday morning.
If the good guys win, Brad’s wife is going to hear about it.
And if the Bulldogs win?
I already know what’s coming.
She’s going to give me just as hard of a time as he would have.
And I’ll take it.
Because if you knew Brad, you know that’s exactly the way he would want it.
So Rest easy, SCSUDog4Life, but just so we’re clear…
Hail Bulldogs?…HELL NO! 👎
It’s always HailWildcats! 👍
We will talk about this in the sweet bye and bye. For now, tell Ms. Mary her black roses said hello and Let’s Go Wildcats! 😇🤣
