Orange Blossom Classic opens Bison football season
By Monica Lewis
Howard University’s football team will open the 2025 season against Florida A&M University in the 2025 Orange Blossom Classic. The game, which will be held on Saturday, Aug. 30, will not just be a rematch of the 2023 Celebration Bowl, but it will also feature the two teams that played in the inaugural Orange Blossom Classic in 1933.
Founded by J.R.E. Lee Jr., the son of then-FAMU president J.R.E. Lee Sr., the first Orange Blossom Classic was played on a “black only” field in Jacksonville, Florida, a game won by FAMU 9–0 before a crowd of 2,000. It would be another 41 years before the teams would meet again in the classic, a closely contested 17–13 victory for FAMU. The classic was retired in the late 1970s but returned in 2021, this time in Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. In that game, Jackson State University, then coached by NFL legend Deion Sanders, narrowly defeated FAMU 7–7 in a game that aimed to return the classic to its intended mission of celebrating HBCUs.
“As a Florida native, I know the special significance of the Orange Blossom Classic to HBCU football and our culture,” said Larry Scott, who enters his sixth season as head coach of the Bison this year. “I can’t think of a better way to kick off our 2025 season than by having Bison fans from all over the nation show up at Hard Rock Stadium to cheer us on to victory against Florida A&M. This is going to be a game that folks will not want to miss.”
The last time the two teams faced off was in the 2023 Cricket Bowl, which pitted the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Champion Bison against the Southwest Athletic Conference Champion Rattlers for the right to claim the National Black College Football title. Held in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Bison lost a hard-fought game 30–26.
Kery Davis, athletics director for Howard University, believes that an invitation to return to the Orange Blossom Classic shows that Howard University is a competitive program that is known for drawing large crowds due to the school’s devoted fanbase and success in many of its 21 sports programs. This includes the 2025 Northeastern Conference men’s golf title, the 2024 Northeastern Conference women’s soccer title, the 2023 MEAC football championship, back-to-back NCAA appearances by the men’s basketball team in 2024 and 2023 and a trip to the NCAA volleyball tournament for the women’s volleyball team last fall.
“For the last several years, Howard University has seen a renaissance within our athletics programs, with our student athletes winning championships in multiple sports,” Davis said. “It’s activities like the Orange Blossom Classic that not only help people see that Howard University is not just an intellectual powerhouse but is an institution where our student athletes can play on some of the biggest stages in the nation.”
Purchase tickets now. For hotel accommodations, visit here. We hope you choose to spend the Labor Day Weekend cheering the Bison on to victory.