North Carolina Central University will be in Detroit for SMSB HBCU Football Academy
The second annual Sound Mind Sound Body (SMSB) HBCU College Academy will be held in Detroit from May 12-14 at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School. This year, SMSB will have twice as many colleges and their football coaches in attendance. The FREE event will feature football coaches from North Carolina Central University.
North Carolina Central University is located in Durham, North Carolina, and was founded on July 5, 1910, as the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race by Dr. James E. Shepard. Chautauqua was an educational movement that originated in the Northeast and spread throughout rural America. The purpose of the new school was to develop in young men and women “that fine character and sound academic training requisite for real service to the nation.”
In 1923, the North Carolina legislature was so impressed with the work going on under Dr. Shepard that it provided state funding and made his school a state school. At that point, the National Training School became Durham State Normal (Teachers) School. The North Carolina Central University name was adopted later on in 1969.
U.S. News ranked NCCU as the 13th best HBCU in the nation in 2022. Notable alumni of the school include former high school football coach Herman Boone, actress Kim Coles, the first Black mayor of Atlanta Maynard H. Jackson, Bishop Eddie Long, NCCU basketball coach LeVell Moton, and late fashion editor Andre Leon Talley.
UNNC football will celebrate 100 years on the football field this season. Head coach Trei Oliver is in his fourth season at his alma mater. The Eagles went 6-5 in 2021.