By Marlon W. Morgan (529-2792), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Friday, September 11, 2009
With the 20th edition of the Southern Heritage Classic approaching, staff reporter Marlon W. Morgan sat down with founder Fred Jones Jr. to talk about all things SHC. Here are excerpts from the conversation:
Q: What is it about the Classic that made you think it could be successful?
A: Just the right location. There’s a tremendous base of people here from Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee. There are a lot of Jackson State and Tennessee State grads here. And it was a good location. We’re only 200 miles away. It wasn’t a big travel issue, and people like coming to Memphis. We’ve always had Beale Street. The Food Network’s gotten on board. Everybody here has gotten to be a star, whether it’s Neely’s, whether it’s Interstate, whether it’s Cozy Corner, or whether it’s Uncle Lou’s. They’re all here in Memphis. We’ve always had a lot to work with and now we’ve got more to work with. People like coming here. People like Memphis. It made it easy to have that part. You weren’t trying to force people to go to a place they weren’t comfortable, where they didn’t have friends and family. Over a period of years, the people that migrated from Mississippi here, and migrated on up to St. Louis and Chicago, it became a meeting place to come back to Memphis.
Q: How critical is the entertainment aspect to making the whole weekend successful?
A: I said this for many years, and I don’t think people really got into it. The thing that makes the weekend really go is the game. I use the comparisons to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl game, they have more entertainment around than you can imagine. Everybody’s got a party, companies are bringing in athletes and former athletes. They’re doing all kinds of things. But it all revolves around the game. For a long time people felt because schools and teams are not what they used to be, some people felt you needed to do other things to attract people. From the beginning, it was the package around the game that I was always pushing forward.
Q: What are some of the hurdles you had to face over the years?
A: The first big hurdle was Bill Thomas and the administration at Tennessee State didn’t really believe that I could pull this off. Bill Thomas was the AD at the time that we started this. The big thing was that people in Memphis, we had tried stuff and it had never been successful. How was this going to be any different from anything else that’s been tried? The whole community did not believe that this could ever get to 20 years, let alone get through one year. ‘We can’t do it in Memphis. You can do it in New Orleans. You can do it in Atlanta. You can do it in Indianapolis. You can do it in Florida. But you can’t do it in Memphis.’ That was the hurdle that you had to get people to believe that that could happen.
Q: In what ways has it grown over the years?
A: I think the growth has been that we’ve taken the event in areas that, like when we talk about being on television. You’re not going to get a major, multi-year deal for these schools. But we’ve been on television in a big way. When we got on the Armed Forces Network (this is the second year), taking it to our men and women in the military in 175 countries, people were blown away. How did you pull that off? We just kept pushing, trying to do stuff. From a business standpoint, and an ego standpoint, being a native of Memphis, I just want to show people that it could be done.
Q: Do you feel like the city has supported you the way you would like it to?
A: The citizenry has. We’ve been working on the business community. But I think as a whole, the community, both business and the fans, have been gracious. But there’s always room to continue to improve and get better.
Q: Are there any special things planned for this year’s event?
A: I didn’t want to do anything special to take away from just having a good time at the 20th anniversary, as opposed to having something that would dominate. The whole event, everything about it makes it special. We’ve done things in the past for the 10th anniversary and the 15th anniversary. This year I just wanted to concentrate on the event and take pleasure that this event has survived and thrived for 20 years.
Q: Do you like the matchup, or have you thought about changing it?
A: Jackson State, in their conference the SWAC, is probably going to be in the top two or three most of the time. Tennessee State came within a defensive stop from winning the Ohio Valley last year. They’re picked fourth in their conference. So you have some teams in their respective conferences that are well thought of. That’s why, except for last year, the games haven’t really gotten out of hand. They’ve been very, very close and that’s the beauty of what you have. You have two teams that are very competitive. From a football sense, you end up with a good football game. I’ve got them signed to 2014, which is our 25th anniversary. I’m satisfied with that.
Q: Is this something you see going on forever?
A: You’d like to think that when I’m no longer doing this, it’ll still be around. I’ve got the game through 2014. But then again, who would have ever thought we would get to year 20? That speaks for itself, it speaks volumes. In another 20 years, I’ll be 81 years old. I doubt very seriously if I’m around then that I’ll still be doing this. But if I’m around, I’ll still be going to the games.
Copyright, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN. Used with permission.
