Founded in 1837, Cheyney State University is the oldest historically black university in the country. Its list of alum is as prestigious as any other; Ed Bradley, Bayard Rustin, Josephine Silone Yates, NFL players Andre Waters (Philadelphia Eagles) and James O. Williams (Chicago Bears), activist Octavious Catto (helped make the black vote a technical reality by influencing the passage of the 15th Amendment), and so on, and so forth. The university is a virtual factory for churning out black journalists, politicians, authors and historic figures. Unfortunately, Cheyney States financial reality has resulted in the death of football at the school, according to multiple sources. Though the school hasnt said it yet, the conference they play in has.
Apparently, this also disrupts the entire Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference according to a statement;
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference is aware of Cheyney Universitys announcement of dropping football from its sports sponsorship menu.
We have been in contact with Cheyney University President Aaron Walton as he and his staff deliberated potential actions. The communications between the Conference and President Walton have been objective and forthright on both sides.
These are very difficult times financially for many institutions of higher education in the country and the Commonwealth. Cheyneys decision is a result of that.
The Conference Office will work with its member institutions to find potential opponents in the 10 now open dates in mandated league schedules.”
The Wolves finished 1-10 in 2017, their one win against rival Lincoln University in the “Battle of the Firsts” game to commemorate two of the oldest black institutes for higher learning in America.
We were invited to a meeting with the president on Wednesday and told that due to budgetary restraints, the football program was being discontinued, head coach Chris Roulhac told Delcotimes.com. Its been a very sad last 24 hours, but there is really nothing we can do about it. You hear rumors, but we always held out hope that the program could be saved.
According to Roulhac, Cheyney President Aaron Walton told the group that football needed to be cut to help save the school.
And because football is the most expensive sport to fund, he had decided to drop the sport. He also said that no other sports would be affected at this time, but he left open the possibility that the situation could be reassessed at a later date.
Cheyney States football program missed a game against Alabama State in the Turkey Day Classic last month due to money problems weeks before the game was to occur.
