By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com
CLEVELAND, Ohio-The historically Black Morehouse College and Winston-Salem State University will square off for a football game and half time show at the Cleveland Browns stadium beginning at noon on Saturday, Sept. 15 during the Cleveland Classic, with a Greek step show on Friday, Sept 14 at 6 pm at the Quick and Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Tickets for both the football game and the step show, with Black fraternities and sororities, including Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Phi Alpha, Phi Beta Sigma and Qmega Psi Phi , start at $15 and can be purchased at the door, online ( CLICK THIS LINK HERE FOR TICKETS ) and by calling the Cleveland Sports Commission at 216-621-0600.
Sponsors of the event include McDonalds, University Hospitals, the Call and Post and Plain Dealer Newspapers, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Cavaliers professional sports teams.
"The big scheme is to highlight historically Black colleges and universities and also to promote the importance of a strong education for our youth," said Nick VanDemark, a spokesperson for the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, the group putting on the Classic that says the community needs to fully support it for it to continue in the largely Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland.
Since 2000, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission has attracted over 125 sporting events with a mission to "measurably improve the economy and to enhance the quality of life of the greater Cleveland community."
Dr. Donald Reeves, a Cleveland native and graduate from Cleveland's Glenville High School who currently serves as Chancelor of WSSU, will speak at half time, which will also feature the marching bands from both WSSU and Morehouse and a performance by the popular and nationally renowned Shaw High School Marching Band of E. Cleveland, Oh.
One of two Black colleges in the county to produce Rhodes Scholars, Morehouse is a private predominantly male, liberal arts college located in Atlanta, GA.
National alumni of Morehouse include the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., who graduated in 1948
Clevelanders that are alumni of Morehouse include the Rev Dr. Otis Moss Jr., retired senior pastor at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, and the Rev. Tony Minor, a community activist, the executive director of the United Pastors in Mission, and the director of advocacy for the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry.
The Winston-Salem State Rams, which is coached by Connell Maynor, is ranked 8th in the American Football Coaches of America (AFCA ) Division II Coaches' Poll.
Rich Freeman, hired in 2007, is the head coach for the Morehouse College Maroon Tigers football team.
Located in Winston-Salem, NC., WSSU is a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina.
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