State Fair Classic

State Fair Classic
Southwest Airlines State Fair Classic
Stadium Cotton Bowl in Fair Park
Location Dallas, Texas
Operated 1925–present
Sponsors
Southwest Airlines
2015 matchup
Grambling State Tigers vs. Prairie View A&M Panthers (70–54)
2016 matchup
Grambling State Tigers vs. Prairie View A&M Panthers (10/01/2016)

The State Fair Classic (known as the Southwest Airlines State Fair Classic for sponsorship purposes) is an annual college football game between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Prairie View A&M University Panthers of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The game is played on a neutral site at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park, Dallas, Texas during the State Fair of Texas. The game often occurs the weekend before the Texas–Oklahoma Red River Showdown game at the same stadium and fair.


State Fair Classic history

The State Fair Classic, held annually at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, began in 1925 featuring the Wiley College Wildcats and Langston University Lions. The first game was played on Monday, October 19, 1925 and resulted in a 0–0 tie with neither team scoring before a crowd of 5,000.[1] Both teams met four consecutive years in Dallas before Prairie View A&M replaced Langston in 1929.[2] The contest always took place on “Negro Day” at the State Fair of Texas and would feature the city's black high school football championship in the afternoon followed by the much-anticipated college game at night. An early concept of “Monday Night Football” could also be attributed to the Texas State Fair Classic and Louisiana's own State Fair Classic, as the contests took place on Monday nights into the 1960s.

Wiley wasn’t the only college to play PVAMU in the State Fair Classic during that era as the Panthers battled Tennessee State in 1958 and Texas Southern in 1959.

After relocating to Dallas in 1961, Bishop College eventually took Wiley’s place in the annual contest in the 43rd annual classic in 1967. From that point, Prairie View A&M maintained a presence in the Cotton Bowl with match-ups against Bishop, East Texas State University (A&M–Commerce), Southern and others over the years before moving its annual rivalry game against Grambling State to the Cotton Bowl Stadium in the mid-80s.

With the disbanding of the Prairie View A&M football program in 1990, the State Fair Classic featured Grambling and Elizabeth City State. Even though Prairie View A&M brought football back in 1991, that year Grambling played North Carolina A&T, so it was not until 1992 that the Classic would see the PVAMU-GSU showdown once again. Since then, this has been the annual matchup held at the State Fair Classic. Upon the revival of this pairing, Grambling won every game until this changed with the 2009 edition, and the game subsequent to this has been very competitive, with Prairie View A&M winning four out of five contests between then and 2013.

The classic is accompanied by a press conference, alumni functions, concerts, tailgating, and two battles of the bands. The first battle features high school bands in the Dallas area and the last is between the "World Famed" Tiger Marching Band of Grambling and the Marching Storm of Prairie View A&M.[3]

The classic has an annual estimated economic impact of $8.5 million for the City of Dallas.[4] The stadium attendance generally ranges between 35,000 and 50,000 annually. However, the official 2015 game attendance was 51,328 solidifying the event as one of the largest HBCU football classics in the nation.[5]

Game results

Date Winning team Losing team Location
October 19, 1925 Langston0 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1926 Langston13 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 17, 1927 Langston27 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 15, 1928 Langston7 Wiley7 Dallas, TX
October 21, 1929 Prairie View A&M0 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 20, 1930 Wiley17 Prairie View A&M13 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1931 Prairie View A&M20 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 17, 1932 Wiley13 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 16, 1933 Wiley6 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 15, 1934 Prairie View A&M13 Wiley12 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1935 Prairie View A&M0 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1936 Wiley7 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 18, 1937 Prairie View A&M13 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 17, 1938 Prairie View A&M6 Wiley6 Dallas, TX
October 16, 1939 Wiley13 Prairie View A&M6 Dallas, TX
October 14, 1940 Prairie View A&M18 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 13, 1941 Prairie View A&M32 Wiley7 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1942 Prairie View A&M6 Wiley0 Prairie View, TX
1943 Prairie View A&M0 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 14, 1944 Wiley28 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 15, 1945 Wiley35 Prairie View A&M7 Marshall, TX
October 14, 1946 Wiley19 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 13, 1947 Prairie View A&M12 Wiley6 Dallas, TX
October 18, 1948 Prairie View A&M19 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 17, 1949 Prairie View A&M27 Wiley7 Dallas, TX
October 16, 1950 Prairie View A&M47 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 13, 1951 Prairie View A&M38 Wiley0 Marshall, TX
October 13, 1952 Prairie View A&M53 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1953 Prairie View A&M32 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 18, 1954 Prairie View A&M19 Wiley6 Dallas, TX
October 17, 1955 Prairie View A&M34 Wiley7 Dallas, TX
October 15, 1956 Tennessee State45 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 14, 1957 Prairie View A&M7 Texas Southern6 Dallas, TX
October 13, 1958 Prairie View A&M26 Texas Southern19 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1959 Prairie View A&M34 Texas Southern15 Dallas, TX
October 17, 1960 Prairie View A&M36 Wiley15 Dallas, TX
October 16, 1961 Prairie View A&M48 Wiley13 Dallas, TX
October 15, 1962 Prairie View A&M26 Wiley17 Dallas, TX
October 14, 1963 Prairie View A&M27 Wiley10 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1964 Prairie View A&M39 Wiley13 Dallas, TX
October 18, 1965 Prairie View A&M16 Wiley7 Dallas, TX
October 17, 1966 Prairie View A&M21 Wiley0 Dallas, TX
October 16, 1967 Prairie View A&M31 Bishop7 Dallas, TX
October 19, 1968 Bishop13 Prairie View A&M10 ?
October 18, 1969 Bishop36 Prairie View A&M21 Dallas, TX
October 24, 1970 Prairie View A&M29 Bishop26 Dallas, TX
October 21, 1972 Prairie View A&M14 Bishop10 Prairie View, TX
October 20, 1973 Prairie View A&M25 Bishop3 Dallas, TX
October 26, 1974 Bishop21 Prairie View A&M14 Dallas, TX
October 25, 1975 Prairie View A&M14 Bishop13 Dallas, TX
October 23, 1976 Prairie View A&M22 Bishop14 ?
September 10, 1977 East Texas State38 Prairie View A&M10 Dallas, TX
October 21, 1978 Bishop35 Prairie View A&M34 Dallas, TX
October 6, 1979 Bishop33 Prairie View A&M16 Dallas, TX
October 11, 1980 Bishop12 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 10, 1981 Bishop40 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 9, 1982 Prairie View A&M24 Bishop13 Prairie View, TX
October 8, 1983 Bishop32 Prairie View A&M20 Prairie View, TX
October 6, 1984 Bishop34 Prairie View A&M8 Dallas, TX
October 5, 1985 Grambling State27 Prairie View A&M7 Dallas, TX
October 4, 1986 Prairie View A&M24 Grambling State19 Dallas, TX
October 3, 1987 Grambling State28 Prairie View A&M7 Dallas, TX
October 1, 1988 Grambling State40 Prairie View A&M14 Dallas, TX
September 30, 1989 Grambling State49 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
September 29, 1990 Grambling State67 Elizabeth City State3 Dallas, TX
September 28, 1991 North Carolina A&T28 Grambling State12 Dallas, TX
October 3, 1992 Grambling State63 Prairie View A&M3 Dallas, TX
October 2, 1993 Grambling State49 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
October 1, 1994 Grambling State66 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
September 30, 1995 Grambling State64 Prairie View A&M0 Dallas, TX
September 28, 1996 Grambling State54 Prairie View A&M12 Dallas, TX
October 4, 1997 Grambling State33 Prairie View A&M6 Dallas, TX
October 3, 1998 Grambling State55 Prairie View A&M40 Dallas, TX
October 2, 1999 Grambling State47 Prairie View A&M19 Dallas, TX
September 30, 2000 Grambling State47 Prairie View A&M7 Dallas, TX
September 29, 2001 Grambling State40 Prairie View A&M6 Dallas, TX
October 5, 2002 Grambling State35 Prairie View A&M13 Dallas, TX
October 4, 2003 Grambling State65 Prairie View A&M7 Dallas, TX
October 2, 2004 Grambling State53 Prairie View A&M32 Dallas, TX
October 1, 2005 Grambling State50 Prairie View A&M7 Dallas, TX
September 30, 2006 Grambling State53 Prairie View A&M7 Dallas, TX
September 29, 2007 Grambling State17 Prairie View A&M14 Dallas, TX
October 4, 2008 Grambling State40 Prairie View A&M16 Dallas, TX
October 3, 2009 Prairie View A&M35 Grambling State32 Dallas, TX
September 25, 2010 Grambling State34 Prairie View A&M17 Dallas, TX
October 1, 2011 Prairie View A&M31 Grambling State23 Dallas, TX
October 6, 2012 Prairie View A&M31 Grambling State14 Dallas, TX
October 5, 2013 Prairie View A&M31 Grambling State3 Dallas, TX
September 27, 2014 Grambling State26 Prairie View A&M20 Dallas, TX
September 26, 2015 Grambling State70 Prairie View A&M54 Dallas, TX

See also

References

External links

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