The Remarkable Football Turnaround at Historically Black Prairie View A&M University

Tonight the college football season will conclude with the national championship game between the University of Texas and the University of Alabama. But truly one of the most remarkable stories of the just-completed season is the rise of the football program at historically black Prairie View A&M University.

From 1989 through 1998, Prairie View A&M did not win a single football game.  They lost 80 games in a row. They were the laughingstock of college football. When the losing streak finally ended in 1999 the team still struggled. In both 2002 and 2003 Prairie View won only a single game each year.

In 2004 Henry Frazier III was hired as head football coach. He previously had been coach at his alma mater, Bowie State University in Maryland. Over the last three seasons under head coach Frazier, Prairie View A&M has won 25 games, the same number it won in the 19-year span from 1988 to 2006. This year the team was broadcast on national television. It was Prairie View’s first conference title since 1964.

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