Detroit Football Classic 2025 | Kentucky State vs. Central State at Ford Field

DETROIT— The Detroit Football Classic, last played between 2003 and 2007, returned to Motown last Saturday after a 20-year hiatus as Kentucky State and Central (Ohio) State played at Ford Field, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions. Other activities included a kickoff tailgate and fan experience and an after party.

“Today highlights that legacy and celebrates Black excellence and strengthens connections between HBCUs and the legacy of the city,” said Starre Cox of Columbus, Ohio, a 1997 Central State grad. She spoke to us at the tailgate last Saturday across the street from the stadium. 

Last weekend’s events in essence created “the family atmosphere, the community…to bring [Central State] and Kentucky State together” in Motown, she said.

“It brings the HBCU culture to the City of Detroit,” said Kentucky State Class of ’94 grad Eric Dunigan, a native Detroiter. “We’ve had a lot of negativities over the years. For me as a native Detroiter, I look forward to a wonderful weekend.”

The final score — Kentucky State 34, Central State 24 — culminated my first-ever Black college football game in person. I watched it in my hometown, which I left for good in 1980, at the downtown football stadium built just a few blocks south from where I spent the first 14 days of my life where the old Women’s Hospital once stood.

Downtown Detroit now has three major stadiums located within a few short blocks of each other, and an arena that houses both the Pistons and the Red Wings. It is adjacent to The District Detroit where entertainment, shopping and dining venues surround the ballparks.  

The day before the game, I took a personal tour of the D. The city certainly has changed a lot, but for the better? The woman who checked me in for my media credentials, a native Detroiter who works for a local nonprofit, said that gentrification has engulfed the city, especially downtown and Midtown.  

I then rode the Woodward bus, which runs on the city’s main street through Highland Park, population 8,390, located about six miles north of downtown. Known as the birthplace of Henry Ford’s first Model T assembly line, it’s faced economic challenges over the years, not unlike the larger Detroit that completely surrounds it, with a 41% poverty rate and 87% Black.

A childhood friend, while later driving me around the city, calls downtown Detroit “Ilitchville” and “Gilbertville,” named for the two local White moguls, the Ilitch family and Dan Gilbert, who combined own about 70% of the downtown office space. My friend has lived in Detroit his entire life since college and bemoaned how much Motown has changed over the decades.

A Black man who works at the hotel I stayed in is from my generation, another longtime Detroiter who confirmed the aforementioned Black female’s simple assessment: “The neighborhoods have not changed. The downtown area is beautiful, but everywhere else is about the same.” 

Finally, both HBCU alumni enjoyed last weekend’s Classic and all the events surrounding it, especially in Detroit, which Cox proudly pointed out “has been a hub of Black culture.” The Classic last weekend “brings back the pride of being Black,” she stressed.  

Concluded Dunigan, “That we have an opportunity to have a Classic here is super special. We’re happy to have it back” after nearly 20 years.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

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