“A Black School Is Not Supposed to Win”: Black Teamwork at Howard University, 1970–74

Abstract

Abstract The Americanization of soccer during the 1960s and 1970s marketed the game as a sport for white Americans. This process, however, was interrupted when Howard University’s soccer team, made up of black athletes from the Caribbean and Africa, won the national championship in 1971. The following year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) stripped Howard of its title because of apparent eligibility violations. This paper analyzes the racial governance of the NCAA and the ways in which Howard University responded to the Americanization of soccer—what I am calling “black teamwork.” Moreover, I am interested in the diasporic formation of Howard’s “black team” and the political implications it carries for black subjects seeking racial justice. In short, this essay will look at soccer as a space for the articulation of a diasporic black politics.