Historically Black College and University tailgates are very different than that of UCLA. Perhaps the most glaring variance is the amount of rhythm involved.
The discrepancy was abundantly clear on Saturday as North Carolina Central rolled deep into Pasadena for an unusual cross-country college football matchup. Although the Eagles ended up getting smacked and lost 59-7, they got paid a lot of money for a pretty special experience.
N.C. Central received $700,000 for the loss, which will provide a big boost to its athletic funds. Even cooler, though, UCLA picked up the tab for the visitor’s entire marching band and their cheer squad.
At many HBCUs throughout the United States, the band is actually more important than the football team. Especially when the team is terrible, which is not the case for the Eagles.
Even still, marching bands play an important role in the game day experience and N.C. Central wanted to ensure that it would be involved. On the flip side, the game created a cool opportunity for UCLA fans to experience some of the HBCU culture.
NCCU’s Sound Machine Marching Band rolled deep to Los Angeles and had the Rose Bowl ROCKING at halftime. Everybody was up out of their seats!
A few hours prior, Eagles fans got the party started with a tailgate outside of the historic stadium. By nature of demographics at N.C. Central, the tailgate was predominantly Black.
And then there was the aforementioned Bruin.
One courageous UCLA fan cut a rug at the N.C. Central tailgate.
At some point during the afternoon, a very caucasian man wearing cargo shorts made his way over to the HBCU tailgate and started to dance to a remix of Adele. He was going hard, without a care in the world.
As the dancing continued, Eagles fans began to chant “Go white boy, go white boy, go!” Of course, that only encouraged the man to kick it into overdrive.
The entire sequence was not only hilarious for everybody involved, it was an impressive display of courage by the white man in cargo shorts.
This right here is what college football is all about— two very different fanbases coming together for a shared experience. Go white boy, go!