Sports News Flash! An HBCU baseball team can beat a squad from the vaunted SEC.
Coach Kerrick Jackson, the SEC’s first Black baseball head coach, and his Missouri Tigers should be applauded for participating in the 17th Andre Dawson Classic at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla.
Jackson, a former Southern University head coach who piloted the Jaguars in the Dawson Classic during the 2018-20 seasons, thought the tournament featuring HBCU schools needed a major baseball program to be involved.
Given the chance, Jackson immediately got his Tigers into the round-robin format.
On Friday Feb. 21, Missouri topped Florida A&M 6-5 in a well-played, crisp exhibition of baseball. The following day, somewhat surprisingly, Alabama State scored nine two-out runs in a 10-2 win over the favored Tigers.
Mizzou bounced back to topple Southern 15-3 in Sunday’s finale.
The tournament, formerly called the Urban Classic, was championed by Dawson because he appreciates the chance for HBCU baseball players to display their skills before professional scouts.
Dawson played at Southwest Miami Senior High School, but knee injuries shadowed him and he did not receive a scholarship offer to any university nor did he draw interest from pro scouts.
Unvanquished, he took out student loans to attend Florida A&M and walked on to the baseball team as a freshman in 1973. He played for three years at FAMU and would be drafted by the Montreal Expos.
His stellar career including sharing the 1987 National League MVP Award with St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith and induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.
“I got the opportunity to play at an HBCU. I wanted to help create opportunities for other players playing at these schools,” Dawson told MLB Network.
“There are outstanding players at HBCUs, they just need the exposure, they need a chance to be seen.”
Jackson served as president of the MLB Draft League before becoming the head coach at Memphis in 2023, and now Missouri.
“I thought the tournament needed more than just HBCUs in it,” he told MLB Network’s Sedric Granger and Xavier Scruggs during Friday’s game against FAMU.
“It’s such a great tournament, based around some great guys and great ideas. I think it should be spread.
“Baseball is baseball, right? Being in this league before, knowing how well these teams are coached, it’s a good opportunity for our guys just to go out and play good, competitive baseball.”
The tournament featured Alabama State, Alabama A&M, Florida A&M, Grambling State University, Jackson State, Prairie View A&M, Southern University, and Missouri.
“At Southern, we played in this tournament and it’s an experience I wanted our [Missouri] kids to have,” said Jackson.
“To come and stay here on the [JRTC] campus and be able to walk across the street, take ground balls, hit in the cage when they wanted to, just be in this atmosphere.”
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