By Solomon Crenshaw Jr. | For The Birmingham Times
The battle lines are usually well established for the Magic City Classic. Either you bleed black and gold, or maroon and white. Either you swarm with the Hornets or you bark with the Bulldogs.
But there are some people who have lived on the other side. And some of them can seamlessly – or somewhat seamlessly – traverse from the west stands of historic Legion Field to the east stands.
And some are intentionally positioned in the middle.
Here are the stories of some who have spent time on each side of his friendly civil war.
‘You know I went to Alabama A&M, right?’
Huntsville, Alabama, native Jennifer Anderson earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in urban regional planning at Alabama A&M in her hometown and set out to find an employer where she could apply that skill. That employer wound up being rival Alabama State University in Montgomery.
“When I finished my degree in urban planning, I came to Montgomery and I worked as a planner for five years,” she said. “I was asked to come over to Alabama State to serve as a director of development, and then ultimately the executive director of the foundation. I remember when I was asked, I was like, ‘You know I went to Alabama A&M, right?’”
Coincidentally, her office at ASU was in William Hooper Councill Hall, which was named for the former slave who founded Alabama A&M. She came to appreciate ASU in Montgomery.
“I love Alabama State University and I love what it does for our people,” Anderson said. “I think that the stronger A&M is, the stronger ASU is, and the stronger ASU is, the stronger A&M is.”
Anderson was development director at Alabama State for 11 years. In that role, she was responsible for fundraising for ASU, especially surrounding the Magic City Classic.
“That’s a big weekend for us, a big engagement weekend for us,” she recalled. “I went to the Magic City Classic as a Hornet for 11 years, wore black and gold every Classic for 11 years.”
And every year, Alabama State alumni would greet their development director with the request to “let me see.
“I’ll open my jacket or I’ll pull my shawl back and there’ll be an Alabama A&M under my black and gold.”
During her tenure with Alabama State, Anderson would occupy two seats at Legion Field.
“I sat on both sides,” she recalled. “It’s been a joy to be able to love my institution, right, and then be able to serve another institution. I tell people all the time when they give me a hard time, like, ‘You’re a Bulldog.’ I’m like, Alabama A&M trained me to be able to support y’all.”
The former development director said she hit several fundraising goals while I worked for ASU. “We received our first gift of stock while I was there,” she recalled. “I attribute that to the training that I was given at Alabama A&M on working with people and processes.”
Anderson retired from ASU two years ago and began her own company, JSA Consulting. She is also program director for The Alabama Collective, which works with various HBCUs. Since retiring, she’s attended the Classic solely as an Alabama A&M alumna, bearing no outward connection to her former employer.
“Only hugs and smiles and greetings because I still love the alums that I worked with and the administrators I worked with,” she said. “But I will definitely be in maroon and white, top to bottom, because it was always in my spirit.”
But don’t make the mistake of unjustly trashing the Hornets when Anderson’s around.
“If anybody who’s not part of us says something about Alabama State, then I have to have a conversation,” she said. “If they say something negative and they’re not part of the family, that comes out loud.”
I go for A&M every time they’re not playing State’
Lucy Cohen of Hillsboro, Alabama, studied early childhood education at Alabama State started teaching even before graduation. She would follow her Alabama State bachelor’s degree with a master’s from A&M. By then, she and her husband Ronnie had their first child and the Huntsville campus was a much shorter commute.
“Ronnie was (a student) at Alabama A&M. He dropped out of A&M because General Motors came in and they all got jobs,” she said of Ronnie and others in the Lawrence County community. “They didn’t go back to A&M.”
While Ronnie no longer studied at A&M, he remained a fervent fan. Lucy’s allegiance was with Alabama State in Montgomery.
“We would go to one side and then go to the other side,” she said of the Classic. “But all my family members were Alabama A&M fans so they sat on the A&M side. I’d put on my Alabama A&M stuff and go over there and sit down.”
Lucy says she’s loyal to the Bulldogs, most of the time.
“When they’re playing Alabama State, I’m cheering for Alabama State,” she said, laughing at the notion of being in enemy territory. “They get all over me over there but I don’t care. They get all over me on that side.”
‘915 South Jackson Street is always home’
Dawn Sutherlin graduated summa cum laude from Alabama State University in the spring of 1997 with a BS in business administration, majoring in finance. After taking a break working in the private sector, she decided to pursue a graduate degree.
“I chose Alabama A&M University since I was living in the area and my employer offered tuition assistance,” she said.
Taking all evening classes after working 8-hour days and driving her beat-up Mazda 626 back and forth from Decatur to Huntsville more than 30 miles each way was tiresome but well worth it. Her graduate school was different from what she had known as an undergrad.
“Undergrad was where I met lifelong friends and learned to figure things out without my parents’ input,” she said. “The limited days and interaction with other students outside of classes made the experience different from attending ASU. However, I would not trade my experience at AAMU due to the networking opportunities I had. The Office of Career Development always advertised job fairs, resume writing workshops, and internships.”
A classmate told her about a fellowship program with the U.S. Army. Less than a month after graduating with an MBA in 2003, Sutherlin was offered and accepted a job with the Army, where she has worked the past 21 years.
“Magic City Classic is always a great time,” she said. “As my best girlfriend says, it’s her favorite season of the year. I normally sit near the end zone and cheer for ASU. 915 South Jackson Street (the street address of Alabama State) is always home.”
‘Stinging and biting going on’
Birmingham native Erick Wright graduated from Alabama State in journalism and communication in 1980. He would work in sports information at Alabama A&M from 1982 to 1984. Was he conflicted during the Magic City Classic? Not in the least.
“I was once asked by (Huntsville Times reporter) Reggie Benson, ‘Who you cheering for?’” he recalled. “My quote I said to him was, ‘My heart says one thing and my pocket says another.’”
Wright went on to be the sports information director at Alabama State 1984 to 1986. “It’s always good to go back home and be able to make a contribution to your alma mater,” he said. “In this case, I was part of the athletic staff, sports information director, and I worked there for two and a half years.”
Since then, he has started an ASU alumni chapter from scratch in Nashville, Tennessee. He served as his president for four years and eventually I moved to Atlanta and became the president of the Atlanta Metro Alumni Chapter. Wright went on to becoming vice president of the ASU National Alumni Association and then served back-to-back, two-year terms as the president of the national alumni association.
Wright did choose Alabama A&M in one respect as he married 1980 A&M alumna Ethel Brown Wright.
“My wife always likes to tell me that I married up when I married an A&M Bulldog as an ASU Hornet,” he said, choosing to respect her opinion if not outright agreement. “Our slogan around the house is, ‘There’s nothing but some stinging and some biting going on.’”
