Chicago Football Classic Founder Hopes To Fill Soldier Field In Coming Years

The Citizen Newspaper recently hosted Larry Huggins, founder of the Chicago Football Classic to hear from him how this year’s event went and what his goals for the future of the game are.
The Citizen Newspaper recently hosted Larry Huggins, founder of the Chicago Football Classic to hear from him how this year’s event went and what his goals for the future of the game are.

Chicago Football Classic Founder Hopes To Fill Soldier Field In Coming Years

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

For 21 years the Chicago Football Classic has been hosting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for a special football game at Soldier field and an HBCU college fair. The founder of the event, Larry Huggins, recently came by the Citizen Newspaper’s offices to sit down and discuss the history of the event, the robust scholarship program, and what he has envisioned for the future of the event.

“The Chicago Football Classic is a football game that is played between two historically black colleges. The reason that we created this event was to bring young men and young women out to a see a game that will excite them and the hope is that they will continue on and seek higher education and attend HBCU’s.

That is really the purpose of the event, to give exposure to our young students and talk about

the importance of college. When they come to the game they see the game itself and the battle of the bands which is a huge component of these Classics and it just encourages them to go to HBCUs,” said Huggins.

The perceived main event of the Chicago Football Classic is, of course, the game but for the many students that attend the accompanying college fair, the possibility of obtaining a college scholarship is an enticing reason to attend as well.

“About 15 years ago, we decided to do a college fair because education is one of the main reasons why we do this so we thought that if we did a college fair along with the game it would encourage students to come. We have the universities come in and talk to them about the importance of going to college and what they need to do to prepare for college,” said Huggins.

The Chicago Football Classic college fair has expanded students’ exposure to HBCUs in Chicago. There were about 1,500 students that attended this year’s College Fair and of those students, 181 students filled out applications to go to college.

During the College Fair, Miles College, located in Fairfield Alabama, blew everyone out

of the water by giving 58 students on-the-spot scholarships to attend college.

“This year, Miles College gave away 58 onsite scholarships that totaled $1,498,000, and that was just one school, said Huggins. “The total in scholarships given away that day was $1,515,000. That has never been heard of and is really the number one reason as to why we

do this game, to provide opportunities to these kids to go to college. If it wasn’t for this game,

that 1.5 million in scholarship just would not have happened.”

Looking toward the future, Huggins said that he wants to continue to grow and continue to

see more Chicago students attending HBCUs with scholarships thanks to the Chicago Football Classic.

“Our number one goal is to have 62,000 seats filled at Soldier Field and once we do that, there will be no questions that this game will go on forever,” said Huggins.

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