Ministers Commit To Classic Scholarship Initiative

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by Lesley R. Chinn

Soldier Field will be the place to be for the Chicago Football Classic featuring the September 26 gridiron match up between the Alabama State University Hornets and. the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils. But last week, it was the spot for 50 clergymen who pledged to support higher education.

The Faith Based Coalition for the Chicago Football Classic, demonstrated its commitment to improving quality education when the ministers announced that they would sell 15,000 seats to raise funds for a $75,000 scholarship initiative.

Five dollars in proceeds from the $15 dollar tickets will be donated towards the scholarship initiative. The scholarship program will be left up to the individual churches to send their young people off to a Historically Black College or University. For example, if my church sells enough tickets and we get $5,000 back, what were going to do is divide that up among our young people, said Rev. Albert Tyson, pastor of St. Stephens AME Church. So its not just about the powerful weekend, the activities, and the culture that surrounds a Historically Black College football game, but its also about an opportunity to say to our young people that were going to [raise some money] because we know that some of [them] will not be financially able to go to college.

Ever since the Classic began 12 years ago, Larry Huggins, Classic co-chairman, said the ministers have always participated in the game, but a program has not really been put in place to engage them. The scholarship initiative is the first program of its magnitude designed to accomplish this.

One of the things we talked about is the importance of scholarship, Huggins stated. We always promoted giving back to the community in terms of scholarships.

The ministers truly know from their congregation[s] who is really experiencing hardship and where those scholarship dollars can go. So thats why we decided to engage them, to really get behind this Classic, Huggins continued. If the churches get involved, they can really [help] fill this stadium up.

As he pointed to Section 400 of Soldier Field, which the pastors dubbed as the Section for Heaven, Rev. Tyson expressed confidence about a sold-out crowd. We have gathered an array of faith-based personsto fill up this section, he proclaimed.

However, Rev. Walter Turner, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Chicago, also called on other pastors and social agencies to support the Classic for the youth. We dont just want to fill up the Section for Heaven, we want to fill up Soldier Field.

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