Lincoln to meet Bowie State in Fifth Annual Prince George's Classic
Lions and Bulldogs to battle Oct. 4 in Bowie
LANDOVER, MD (July 15, 2008) – Lincoln University of
Pennsylvania head football coach O.J. Abanishe briefly transformed
into a comedian while discussing his 2008 team during the press
conference to introduce the participants in the Fifth Annual Prince
George’s Classic Tuesday afternoon.
“We are going to be young this year,” said Abanishe
stating the obvious. “Of course, our last returning starters
would probably be about 67 years old being that our last year of
playing was in 1960. Out of 22 starters, about 18 of them will
probably be freshmen or sophomores.”
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| Lincoln's O.J. Abanishe |
The room burst into laughter following Abanishe’s
comments.
Lincoln is less than seven weeks away from playing its first
football game in 48 years on August 30 against George Mason and 11
weeks from playing against Bowie State on October 4 in the Fifth
Annual Prince George’s Classic presented by State Farm
Insurance. The game will be played at Bowie’s Bulldog Stadium
beginning at 1:00 p.m. The first football meeting between Lincoln
and Bowie in history is the centerpiece of a week’s worth of
activities surrounding the contest.
Abanishe, defensive coordinator Herb Pickens, celebrating his
birthday, and Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Information
Management Rob Knox represented Lincoln at the press-conference,
which was held in the Town Hall room of the luxurious Prince
George’s Sports Complex. The Lions will play eight of their
10 games against CIAA schools in 2008.
“This is a special event to have Lincoln, the oldest HBCU
with a distinguished history, as a part of the fifth annual Prince
George’s Classic,” Classic director Mike Little said.
“Certainly Lincoln has a lot of illustrious alumni in our
region. We look forward to Lincoln’s participation and being
a part of this event. Thinking long term, we believe that this
relationship between Lincoln and Bowie will be great for both
universities.”
Lincoln will be the eighth school in five years to participate in
the Prince George’s Classic, joining Howard, Alcorn State,
North Carolina A&T, Morgan State, Bowie State, North Carolina
Central and Saint Paul’s College.
The first two games were played at FedEx Field, home of the
Washington Redskins, with Alcorn State defeating Howard, 17-10, in
2004 and North Carolina A&T edging Morgan State, 40-33, in a
double-overtime thriller in 2005. The last two games were played at
Bowie State with the Bulldogs falling to North Carolina Central
35-13 in 2006 and rallying to beat Saint Paul’s, 41-30, in
2007.
“We are proud to be a part of this classic,” Abanishe
said. “I see why this classic has been successful over the
last four years because of the support from the community and its
corporate sponsors. We are looking forward to competing against a
quality program like Bowie State. We have been practicing since
last year so it’s going to be real interesting to see what
type of team we have out there on August 30 and October 4 when we
play Bowie.”
According to school records, Lincoln, which began playing football
in 1894, has compiled a 163-166-27 record. Lincoln won the CIAA
Conference championship in 1918, 1919 and 1924. Lincoln was one of
the original founding members of the CIAA in 1912 along with
Howard, Virginia Union, Hampton and Shaw.
In addition to football, Lincoln won CIAA championships in the
following sports: men’s tennis (1945-46), men’s track
and field (1927-28), men’s basketball (1914-15), wrestling
(1936, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1947, 1953, 1954, 1955,
1960 & 1961) and boxing (1939).
