On Sept. 7 at 7 p.m., South Carolina State University held its 2012 Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center in Orangeburg.
Those honored included nine individuals and two teams.
The teams included the 1976 National Black Champion Football Team, of which Fairfield County resident David L. Brown was an honoree.
Brown was a sophomore offensive guard that year.
“This team went 9-1 during the regular season and ended up with a postseason win in the Bicentennial Bowl,” Brown said.
The Bulldogs averaged 28 points per game while allowing only an average of 3.78 points per game.
The team had 10 of 22 first-team selections to the All-Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Team.
Although only in his second year on the team, Brown played a prominent role in the team’s accomplishments.
Over eighty percent of the former players of that era returned to participate in the induction ceremony.
There were players present that had not seen each other since the ’76–’77 academic year ended.
Brown gave the invocation at the induction program.
There were tears of joy and laughter and the crowd erupted in applause as each name was called.
Teammates shared stories and adventures that made them into the revered powerhouse they were known as back then.
“It was an event I will always cherish for the rest of my life to see Bulldogs of old coming together and reconnecting,” Brown said.
Brown is associate pastor of Old Hope Station Baptist Church in Blair.
He is married to Shryll Brown, and they have three children and six grandchildren.
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