UNDER THE BANNER
What's Going On In and Around Black College Sports
FAMU RESIGNATION: Florida A&M Athletic Director Dr. Joseph Ramsey II has resigned from his
post after just six months
of handling what has become black college's most
troubled athletic program. In a press release circulated Monday,
the school reported the resignation saying that Ramsey will
remain at the school in a teaching capacity. Ramsey, a tenured
professor at FAMU in the school's Sports Management
program, was named the special assistant to the president in
February 2004 and then was selected as athletic director after an exhaustive search on July 22 of
last year. He took over as AD as the school was emerging
from a year-long quagmire resulting from the decision of
his predecessor to make a leap into NCAA Div. IA football,
a move that disrupted the Rattlers' successful football
program and created huge deficits in the athletic department.
The school also self-reported almost 200 infractions during
that period and is still waiting on the outcome of an
NCAA investigation. A report in Monday's Tallahassee
Democrat says Interim FAMU President Castell Bryant
has hired Maryland-Eastern Shore AD Nelson Townsend
as a temporary consultant for athletics. Townsend is a 25-year
veteran of athletic administration who was AD at FAMU in
the early 80s and has also served as AD at
MEAC-member Delaware State.
SBN HANDS OUT AWARDS: Awards to the top players, coach and team in 2004 black
college football 
were handed out Saturday night in Atlanta at
the 31st Annual SBN Sports Black College All-American
Awards Banquet. The event returned to Atlanta, its traditional
home, after celebrating its 30th anniversary celebration last year
in New York city. Tennessee State RB Charles
Anthony (offense) took home the SBN/Doug
Williams Offensive Player of the Year award while
Norfolk State linebacker Kevin Talley
was the recipient of the SBN/Mel Blount
Defensive Player of the Year award. Albany State
head coach James "Mike" White was named the winner of the SBN/Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award while
Hampton head coach Joe Taylor was on hand to receive his
team's designation as the 2004 SBN Black College National
Champion. Williams, the former Grambling QB and head
coach, missed last year's celebration because he was in the midst
of taking a new job as an executive with the NFL's Tampa
Bay Bucs but returned to join a host of black college and
NFL veterans in Saturday morning's "Skull Session" with the
all-stars. Harry Carson, L. C. Greenwood,
Everson Walls, Kenny Burroughs, Robert Brazille
and Eddie Robinson, Jr., also were on hand.
EDDIE ROBINSON TRIBUTE: The HBCU Sports Report, a syndicated radio show produced in Atlanta by Golden Communications Inc., has been honoring the legacy of legendary Grambling State Head Coach Eddie Robinson all season during its broadcasts. The show, syndicated to 13 black college radio stations around the country, has been playing sound bites from a 1994 interview with coach Robinson conducted by producer Rojene Bailey. Excerpts from the interview are featured in all 26 of this year's shows. "It's amazing," said Bailey, "that what he had to say then is still relevant and pertinent today." Robinson, who is battling Alzheimers disease, retired after 48 years as the Tigers' head coach in 1996 as the winningest coach in college football history with 408 victories. The current show can be heard at www.Golden2000.com. The website also includes the list of stations that carry the show.
© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.