Fred Jones Jr. made a quick stop for gas one day in February, days after Tennessee State University announced it was pulling out of the Southern Heritage Classic. On the heels of Jackson State’s exodus two years earlier, it meant that for the first time in more than 30 years, neither school would participate.
Jones knows he has a recognizable face. So when he saw a stranger eyeballing him across the parking lot, he braced for the question he knew was coming:
‘”Man, what you gonna do about the Classic?”’ Jones recalled the man blurting out.
Still traumatized by the breakup and quite frankly unsure of the answer, Jones remembered responding with the simple truth: “I don’t know.”
“That was the wrong answer,” Jones said, remembering how the man’s mood and body language shifted.
That moment, still fresh in his mind, captures the pressure Jones has felt as the founder and steward of the Southern Heritage Classic. For more than 30 years, the second week of September would be the countdown to a weekend amalgamation of college sports, music, culture, food and fun — all of it rooted in a football rivalry between TSU and JSU.
But that’s changed. A lot has changed.
This year, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Golden Lions will take on the Alcorn State University Braves Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. And though the Classic has rights to the stadium through 2029, Jones currently has no commitments from any teams for dates beyond this year.
“It’s a new day,” Jones said.
In this extended conversation with The Tri-State Defender, Jones opens up about the emotional and logistical rollercoaster of trying to keep the Classic alive, the heartbreak of losing both anchor schools and the future of the Classic.
TSD: Let’s start with the word you’ve used more than once: traumatic. What has this transition felt like for you personally?
Fred Jones Jr.: It was traumatic. Not just for me, not just for the schools, not just for the Classic — for people, period. To this day, it still feels like we got wounded. And the wound is taking a while to heal. It’s okay, but it was very traumatic.
And alumni — locally, nationally, both schools — still ask me what happened. Honestly, nobody really asked me directly back then. There’s a lot that I can’t speak about for legal reasons, but I wish it hadn’t happened. But in order for the Classic to move forward, we had to have a new day, and that’s where we are now.
TSD: So what happened?
Jones: What I can say on the record is that there were circumstances that everybody involved didn’t really think out. There was a moment where folks wanted to make a change. It was just unfortunate that we couldn’t really think it out, talk it out.
We always wanted to make the Classic better for the schools and the teams, and over the years, we did make it better. But things changed over the years: new administrations, new personalities . . . That’s why, I wish we’d just had a little more time to think about it . . .
It’s like when young people are nose-to-nose with someone else. I tell them, if you take just one step back — one step — that one step gives you a moment to think about it. But nobody’s willing to do that. Everybody just needed more time to think about it. But nobody was willing to take that one step. It was just unfortunate on everybody’s part.
TSD: You said the Classic almost didn’t happen this year. How close did it come?
Jones: (holding fingers close together) It got real close. Like, yes-or-no close. That was the most agonizing thing to go through. I couldn’t talk about it the way we are now, how close it came. They would’ve . . . emotionally, people were just spent. In fact, I stayed out of sight for a few days because I didn’t know what to tell people.
I remember being at a gas station. A guy walked up to me. He recognized me, and asked, “What you gonna do about the Classic?” And I told him, “I don’t know.” And as soon as I said it, I knew that was the wrong answer. I can’t . . . I couldn’t tell (people) that. So it got to be, “I’m working on it. I was working on it this morning. I’m trying.” He said, “I know you working on it; you gonna figure it out.” People wanted an answer, and “I don’t know” was not an acceptable answer.
Now, those last three days or four days, that week the decision was made? I didn’t have no answer.
TSD: So how did it come together? How did you avoid pulling the plug?
Jones: Availability. This year’s game was originally scheduled to be played in Pine Bluff. So Alcorn and UAPB were already planning to play. We were able to shift the location and bring it into the Classic. That part, we settled fairly quickly. But we didn’t have a date that worked. They couldn’t do it on our usual weekend.
So there was a lot of prayer. People had a lot of confidence in me. I just couldn’t tell them how close it came to not happening.
TSD: The landscape of college sports in general has changed, and HBCU sports is no different.
Jones: That’s a big part of what’s going on. When we started this back in 1990, college football was in a whole different place. Now you’ve got NIL deals, conference realignment, games being moved around for TV, more national visibility, especially for HBCUs. It’s not like it used to be.
And that affects everything: the timing of games, the availability of teams, even the way people plan their seasons. You see schools rescheduling games or moving them entirely. We saw it here in Memphis — University of Memphis had to shift a game with Arkansas. That’s just how the landscape is now. Everybody’s trying to figure it out.
TSD: Do you have any contracts in place beyond 2025?
Jones: No, not right now. I’ve got stadium dates through 2029, second Saturday in September. But I don’t have any schools committed yet. We’ve got to see how this plays out. Right now, the focus is just on making 2025 the best it can be.
TSD: Is the September date important going forward? Could that change?
Jones: If it goes forward with me, it stays in September. That’s the only way it works. Early in the season, you don’t run into homecomings. And we don’t have to work around the University of Memphis schedule. It’s worked for 30-plus years.
TSD: Tickets went on sale at the stadium on Monday, Sept. 8, and have been on sale on the campuses for a while. How are ticket sales going?
Jone: Going good. I think we’ll probably end up somewhere in the 20,000-26,000 range in terms of game attendance. But I’ve got different expectations. Like I said, we are completely focused on this year, on 2025. My (SHC) team, I can’t say enough about them; I’m very fortunate to have them. They’re all veterans, been to battle before, so they know what it takes. Of course, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we have good weather. Obviously, that’s one thing we can’t control.
TSD: With two different teams this year, how do you think fans are going to respond?
Jones: I asked my team a few weeks ago, how many of you have had someone ask if there was going to be a Classic this year, or who’s playing? Every hand went up. People had known (about the new teams) for months, but they were still asking. That shows how much it means.
And yeah, these schools — Alcorn and UAPB — they have strong alumni bases, too. And Memphis has a large HBCU presence overall. A lot of graduates from different schools live and work here. And over time, the Classic itself has become a tradition people come home for, like a second homecoming.
TSD: The Memphian in me is scared to ask this question, but the reporter in me must: Is this the last year for the Southern Heritage Classic?
Jones: No, I don’t think so. There are a lot of factors that go into this event, and once we get past this year’s classic, we’ll put all those factors in a bowl and figure out what comes next. Things like, obviously, which schools are available that weekend, how people support the change. But right now, all of our focus is on the 2025 Southern Heritage Classic and making the weekend the best it can be.
For more information about this year’s Southern Heritage Classic, including the full schedule of events, visit southernheritageclassic.com.
