Prairie View A&M

The Prairie View A&M Panthers football team is the college football team representing the Prairie View A&M University. The Panthers play in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. From 1989 to 1998, Prairie View A&M lost 80 straight games, the longest losing streak in NCAA history. History The first football coach at Prairie View was Henry B. Hucles, who began in 1924. Before Hucles's arrival at Prairie View, the school played two games without a coach on record: a 1907 7–0 win against a team from Wylie, Texas and a 1920 7–6 loss to Tuskegee University. Prairie View's most recognized and celebrated coach was Billy Nicks. Known as the "Bear Bryant" of black college football, Nicks was head coach from 1945 to 1947, assistant coach from 1948 to 1951, and head coach again from 1952 to 1965. His record for 17 years was 127–39–8. He led the Panthers to eight Southwestern Athletic Conference championships and five black college national championships. At the Panthers' peak under Nicks, Eddie Robinson was said to dread playing Prairie View. Nicks was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999. Nicks was named the American Football Coaches Association’s recipient of the Trailblazer Award. The award was presented posthumously at the AFCA Kickoff Luncheon on Monday, January 7 at the 2008 AFCA Convention in Anaheim, California. Prairie View is recognized as the first historically Black university to create and play in a post-season bowl game. The Prairie View Bowl was played in Texas from 1929 through 1961. The Panthers won Black college football national championship titles in 1953, 1954, 1958, 1963, and 1964 and Southwestern Athletic Conference Championships SWAC in 1933, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1958, 1960, 1963, 1964, and recently in 2009. Notable football players that have achieved success in the National Football League (NFL) are National Football Hall of Fame Inductee Kenny Houston, who played for the Houston Oilers and Washington Redskins and Otis Taylor, who won a World Championship with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1969. On a small note of significance, Charlie "Choo Choo" Brackins, who played from 1952–1955, was the first HBCU alumnus to play quarterback in the NFL. The end of Jim Crow caused a significant talent drain for all HBCUs.