B-CU marks 100 years of football in 2023

By Teray Bembery

The upcoming football season this fall will mark 100 years of football here at Bethune-Cookman University. The university has come a long way from starting the football program in 1923, and there have been both high and lows. Here are couple things that need to be said as the school year ends.

OUR OWN FIELD: Perhaps it is fitting that the 100th anniversary is the same year that football comes to campus. Athletic director Reggie Theus announced that the school is building a football practice field on campus. The new practice field will be behind the Athletic Training Center. It will be named the "John Bryan Practice Field” and should be completed in August 2023. The field is named after John Bryan and his wife, who have been major contributors to the B-CU football program for years.

Interim President Lawrence Drake said, “I couldn't be more pleased to be a part of what I know is just the beginning of what our athletic department is going to produce in the future."

A shout out also goes to NBA legend Charles Barkley, whose $1 million donation to the university last year reportedly jump started conversations about the field. The synthetic turf field will cost almost $800,000, Drake told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. After goal posts, fencing and other necessities, the practice field will total between $2.5 million and $3 million, the newspaper said. Heretofore, the team practiced at Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium, which also is where they played home games.

BACK ON TRACK: B-CU football is back on track with the selection of Raymond Woodie Jr. as new football coach. Woodie took the reins of the program in the aftermath of the Ed Reed drama, which we will not revisit here.

The Wildcats held their annual spring game, which is really just a scrimmage between the offense and the defense. The final score was 52-51 in favor of the offense. “I really thought that they came out and executed, and there wasn’t a lot of pointing fingers,” Woodie said. “It was basically all about we, we, we and not me, me, me.”

Woodie, an alumnus of B-CU, feels that him being back at B-CU is special. “B-CU helped shape my character,” Woodie said. “It feels unbelievable to be back here. You pour all your efforts — not that I didn’t pour all my efforts at other places — but this is special. This is home.”

NO GUARANTEES: Woodie also made it clear that there is no clear starters for the fall season and there one has to battle for their spots on the team. “Everything is up for grabs,” Woodie said. “I mean everything. We tell them every day we’re going to recruit guys to come in and take your jobs. That’s the real world. I tell them about me and say there are guys out there that are trying to take my job, so I have to step my game up. Those guys like that. I told them, ‘Hey, we’re not trying to run you out of here. But in order to get better, competition makes you better.”

The Wildcats, then led by former head coach Terry Sim, finished the 2022 season with a record of 2-9. Hopefully Woodie can turn around the program and turn B-CU football into a powerhouse in the SWAC Conference.

Information from B-CU Athletics was used in this story.