Location Dallas, Texas | ||
Stadium Cotton Bowl in Fair Park Operated 1925–1970, 1972–present | ||
The State Fair Classic (known as the Southwest Airlines State Fair Classic for sponsorship purposes) is an annual college football game between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Prairie View A&M University Panthers of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The game is played on a neutral site at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park, Dallas, Texas during the State Fair of Texas. The game often occurs the weekend before the Oklahoma–Texas Red River Showdown game previously held at the same stadium and fair before moving to AT&T Stadium ; the new Texas State Fair Football Showdown is also scheduled to take place on the third weekends of the 2017 and 2018 fairs and will feature Southern and Texas Southern.
State Fair Classic history
The State Fair Classic, held annually at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, began in 1925 featuring the Wiley College Wildcats and Langston University Lions. The first game was played on Monday, October 19, 1925 and resulted in a 0–0 tie with neither team scoring before a crowd of 5,000. Both teams met four consecutive years in Dallas before Prairie View A&M replaced Langston in 1929. The contest always took place on “Negro Day” at the State Fair of Texas and would feature the city's black high school football championship in the afternoon followed by the much-anticipated college game at night. An early concept of “Monday Night Football” could also be attributed to the Texas State Fair Classic and Louisiana's own State Fair Classic, as the contests took place on Monday nights from the 1920s into the 1960s.
Wiley wasn’t the only college to play PVAMU in the State Fair Classic during that era, as the Panthers battled Tennessee State in 1956 and then Texas Southern until 1959.
After relocating to Dallas in 1961, Bishop College eventually took Wiley’s place in the annual contest in the 43rd annual classic in 1967. From that point, Prairie View A&M maintained a presence in the Cotton Bowl with match-ups against Bishop, East Texas State University (A&M–Commerce), Southern, and others over the years before moving its annual rivalry game against Grambling State to the Cotton Bowl stadium in the mid-80s. The Panthers' series with Grambling had previously been hosted by the State Fair of Louisiana before returning to on-campus venues in 1962.
With the disbanding of the Prairie View A&M football program in 1990, the State Fair Classic featured Grambling and Elizabeth City State. Even though Prairie View A&M brought football back in 1991, that year Grambling played North Carolina A&T, so it was not until 1992 that the Classic would see the PVAMU–GSU showdown once again. Since then, this has been the annual matchup held at the State Fair Classic. Upon the revival of this pairing, Grambling won every game until this changed with the 2009 edition, and the game subsequent to this has been very competitive, with Prairie View A&M winning four out of five contests between then and 2013.
The classic is accompanied by a pre-game concert featuring a celebrity artist, press conference/fellowship luncheon, pep rallies, alumni fundraising functions, golf tournament, jazz show, comedy show, tailgating, and two battles of the bands. The first battle features high school bands in the Dallas area and the last is between the "World Famed" Tiger Marching Band of Grambling State and the Marching Storm of Prairie View A&M.
The classic has an annual estimated economic impact of $8.5 million for the City of Dallas. The official 2016 game attendance was 53,182 which solidified the event as one of the largest HBCU football classics in the nation and the largest Division I FCS football game in Texas. Both schools have a significant alumni base in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
The contest was known as the State Fair Classic through the 1989 season. In 1990 it was renamed the Al Lipscomb State Fair Classic after the former Dallas city councilman. After attracting a title sponsor for 1995, it was rechristened as the Southwest Airlines Al Lipscomb State Fair Classic. Starting with the 2000 season, Lipscomb's name was no longer associated with the game, because he had been convicted of 65 counts of conspiracy and bribery.