JCSU football hosts first-ever NCAA playoff game

CHARLOTTE — For the first time in more than 50 years, the Johnson C. Smith football team owns the title: CIAA champions.

It’s after a decisive win last Saturday over the 2-time defending champions, Virginia Union.

Now, JCSU will host the first NCAA playoff game in program history.

Channel Nine’s sports reporter DaShawn Brown spoke with members of the program, who detailed what it’s meant for the community.

“Our first year was on grass,” said head coach Maurice Flowers.

“We recruited that first class, there was a weight room there that only fit 18 to 20 people, and we said hey, turf is coming. We said a new locker room is coming. We said a new weight room is coming and it is here,” he said.

Their success didn’t come easy, nor did it come in Flowers’ first year.

The Charlotte native and former JCSU quarterback is in his fourth year as head coach, where he just led the program to its best record in school history: 10-1.

“You know coach will tell us not to look at the crowd, but (when) I heard it, it was louder than usual,” said JCSU quarterback Kelvin Durham, describing the community support in Durham for the CIAA championship.

“I turned around and looked at everyone in the stands and it felt like what we see on tv with the bigger schools,” Durham said.

“I’m very proud to say the biggest championship that we have right now, yes this one is big...the biggest championship that we have is our team GPA is a 3.16. Those are champions,” Flowers added.

Flowers will often say they’ve built the program “brick by brick” - this season, adding senior quarterback Kelvin Durham, who transferred from Fort Valley State.

Flowers, a former coach there, recruited him.

“We’ve been through some things,” Flowers laughed. “He’s beat me.”

“I know the competitor that he is and so that’s what we have learned through everything, through that one loss this year we had to compete harder.”

Saturday, JCSU will face Frostburg State in the first round of the NCAA Division-II Playoffs.

“We’re 10-1, ranked no. 11 in the country in the Top 25. We’re the no. 2 seed in Super Region one, so we didn’t sneak in the playoffs, we pretty much kicked the door down,” Flowers said.

“We already made a lot of history, but why not continue to make more history,” Durham added.

The game kicks off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Irwin Belk Complex in Charlotte.

Channel Nine’s sports reporter DaShawn Brown will be there with a full report on Eyewitness News at 6 p.m. Saturday evening.

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