The Pelican Bowl is a defunct, Louisiana-based NCAA Division II[n 1] bowl game that was intended to match the overall champions or top-seeded co-champions from the then-new Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the long-established Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) to determine the black college football national championship in the United States between 1972 and 1975.
The inaugural Pelican Bowl was originally scheduled to be played at A. W. Mumford Stadium on the campus of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
[1] However, due to campus unrest in the wake of an on-campus shooting on November 16, 1972, officials from both the SWAC and MEAC decided to move the game to another location.
[1] An announcement was officially made to move the game on November 21 to Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
[1][2] In the inaugural contest Grambling State defeated North Carolina Central 56–6 to capture the 1972 black college football national championship.
With the cancellation of the Pelican Bowl, the SWAC's top-seeded co-champion, Grambling, had no conflict of interest by participating in the inaugural playoffs.
SWAC co-champion Alcorn State was the conference's top seed but elected to compete in the Division II playoffs over the still-fledgling Pelican Bowl.
[10][11] The next year, although Grambling was selected as the consensus black college football national champion—they had even defeated both Hawaii and Oregon State of NCAA Division I on the road over consecutive weekends[12]—they were unable to participate in the 1975 Pelican Bowl after forfeiting their game against Prairie View A&M.
Also in 1974, since the bowl was based in New Orleans, it was quickly overshadowed by the new Bayou Classic with its heated rivalry game, battle of the bands, parade, beauty pageant, and other such events that soon made it the biggest spectacle in black college football; by the standards that the Bayou Classic had set for entertainment, the Pelican Bowl almost seemed anticlimactic, despite being for a bigger prize (the black national title).
Tureaud was injured later in the period, and his replacement Lee Fobbs answered with a 55-yard touchdown run to give Grambling a 21–0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
[24] Matthew Reed hit Jackie Jefferson for a 14-yard touchdown reception and Steve Dennis intercepted a Stone pass and returned it 70-yards for a score as time expired to give the Tigers a 35–6 lead at the half.
[28][29] In a game dominated by both defenses, the Bulldogs scored a pair of second-quarter touchdowns following Jaguar fumbles on consecutive possessions.
[28] The first came on an eleven-yard Jessie Prather pass to Mickey Pringle, and the second came on a one-yard Jackie Reed run to take a 12–0 lead.