Fayetteville, North Carolina · Founded 1867 · Mr. Bronco
“The 1867 teacher-training school seven Black men built on Gillespie Street, now a CIAA football power and home of the Marching Bronco Xpress.”
Full 4K performance of the Marching Bronco Xpress at the 2026 Phillip O. Berry competition — X-Factor Drumline, field show, and blowdown.
MBX playing Don Toliver's "Gemstone" on the field, September 2026.
The band's September 12, 2026 group project halftime show.
Spotlight on MBX during the 2025 season that carried the band to its first ESPN Band of the Year national championship appearance.
The band under director Al Davis playing Teena Marie's "Square Biz" in 2012.
Tribute to Dr. Jorim Reid, who led MBX from 2015 to 2022, on receiving his doctorate.
Compilation spotlighting the Queens of the MBX — the band's dance line — from HBCU Weekly/HBCU Grad.
Delta Gamma chapter of Omega Psi Phi step show at FSU homecoming 2010 — the video notes the chapter's role in the genesis of Greek life at Fayetteville State.
Short-form clip of dance and homecoming energy around a Bowie State vs. Fayetteville State matchup.
Full highlights of the November 1, 2025 No. 2 vs. No. 3 CIAA showdown: JCSU 17, FSU 14, sealed with a touchdown with 22 seconds left. Aired on The Grio/HBCU Go.
The Broncos running the CIAA South — a 55-12 beatdown of JCSU.
JCSU came to FSU's homecoming hunting first place in the CIAA South; the Broncos stayed kings of the South.
Played basketball and football at FSU from 1988–1991, then built a long NBA career as a guard and is now an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks.
Actor, writer, dancer, rapper, comedian, and music producer from Fayetteville; earned a business degree at FSU before starring in feature films and sketch comedy.
Played football at FSU, then joined the NFL and played for the San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles in the 1970s.
Former Major League Baseball pitcher who went on to a long pro career.
Former professional football player in the Canadian Football League.
Former NFL player from the Broncos football program.
Former NFL player who became the legendary pro wrestler "Junkyard Dog," one of wrestling's biggest stars of the 1980s.
NFL defensive back drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth round (135th overall) of the 2022 NFL Draft; his playoff play helped the Chiefs win Super Bowl LVII.
Standout offensive tackle who started every game from his freshman year, earned first-team All-CIAA in 2019, and signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Falcons in 2021 before landing with the Miami Dolphins.
The first known professional football player from Fayetteville State, signing a free-agent contract with the Baltimore Colts after starring on the 1952 EIAC championship basketball team and the football squad.
Graduated cum laude and became the first woman in the United States Army Reserve to reach the rank of command sergeant major of the Army Reserve — at one point the highest-ranking African-American woman in the U.S. military.
American-Israeli professional women's basketball player.
Academic administrator.
Member of the North Carolina General Assembly.
Class of 1964; returned as FSU's first alumnus chancellor, serving 1995–2003.
Rapper who played quarterback at Fayetteville State (did not graduate).
Right after the Civil War, Fayetteville's Black community had already started the Phillips and Sumner Schools for primary and intermediate learning, and in 1867 those schools consolidated into the Howard School. Seven Black men — David A. Bryant, Nelson Carter, Andrew J. Chesnutt, George Grainger, Matthew Leary, Thomas Lomax, and Robert Simmons — paid $136 for two lots on Gillespie Street and formed themselves into a self-perpetuating board of trustees so the property would permanently serve the education of Black youth. Freedmen's Bureau chief General Oliver O. Howard erected a building on the site, and the school took his name. Robert Harris was selected as the first principal.
An 1877 act of the North Carolina legislature created the state's first teacher-training institution for African Americans, and the Howard School was selected for the honor because of its successful ten-year record under Robert Harris. The school was renamed the State Colored Normal School, making it the first state-supported institution in the South established for the education of Black teachers. Harris remained as principal until his death in 1880.
Charles W. Chesnutt became principal in 1880 and served three years, pushing foreign languages, social graces, and intellectual development as the keys to success. He resigned in 1883 to pursue a literary career and became one of the leading Black American writers of fiction between 1887 and 1930, known for works like The Conjure Woman. His father, Andrew Jackson Chesnutt, had been one of the seven founders, and the university's Charles W. Chesnutt Library carries the author's name today.
Ezekiel Ezra Smith, a graduate of Shaw Collegiate Institute in Raleigh, was appointed principal in 1883 and began a fifty-year commitment to the institution that only war and diplomacy interrupted. He expanded the curriculum to better prepare teachers for the public grammar schools and would serve three separate terms as the school's chief administrator.
Smith was appointed Minister Resident and Consul General of the United States to Liberia by President Grover Cleveland in 1888, and George H. Williams ran the school in his absence, introducing a Speaker's Series. Smith returned in 1895 after two years abroad, having founded The Carolina Enterprise in Goldsboro — the state's first newspaper for African Americans. In 1898 he left again to serve as Regimental Adjutant of the Third North Carolina Volunteer Infantry in the Spanish-American War, with the Reverend Leonard E. Fairley serving as acting principal until Smith's return in 1899.
Smith oversaw the school's move to a permanent site on Murchison Road and personally deeded additional land to bring its holdings to 92 acres, with several major buildings and cottages. Athletics began shortly after the move, when the school was still the State Colored Normal School. Fayetteville State became a charter member of the North Carolina Athletic Conference in 1924, fielding teams in baseball and football for men and tennis for women, with basketball added soon after. The football field — a four-acre ground with a nine-foot fence and, as the school history notes, an impressive grandstand — would later become Smith Stadium, then Bronco Stadium, then today's Luther "Nick" Jeralds Stadium.
All high school coursework was suspended in 1929, marking the school's full arrival as a college-level institution. In the same shift, the chief administrator's title changed from principal to president — a sign of how far the little normal school on Gillespie Street had come.
On June 30, 1933, E. E. Smith retired after his half-century of leadership and became the school's first President Emeritus. Dr. James Ward Seabrook assumed the presidency, and under his leadership the school became Fayetteville State Teachers College in 1939 — a state and regionally accredited four-year college granting the Bachelor of Science degree in education.
The crowning glory of the era was the construction of Lilly Gymnasium in 1938, deemed one of the finest sports facilities of its time. It hosted college tournaments and became the home site of the National Association of High School Basketball Tournament for three consecutive years — a record — and only lost the tournament because its rules prohibited playing at a single site for more than three straight years.
Fayetteville State joined the Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1940, alongside Livingstone, Morris, Storer, Elizabeth City State, the Virginia State College–Norfolk Campus (now Norfolk State), and Friendship. The women were league champions with a 10-0 record that first year, and in 1941 the men won the EIAC tournament while the Lady Broncos took a 1,000-mile tour through the South and returned undefeated in eight games. They lost to Xavier University for the national championship — a game played in Lilly Gym.
From 1948 through 1952 the Broncos won five consecutive EIAC Tournament Championships, the glory years of Bronco basketball. The last champions, the 1952 squad, featured a lineup of seven sophomores — Ten Benner, Augustus Young, Frank Davis, David Williams, James Boyd, William Jones, and Sam "Snake" Williams. That Sam Williams became Fayetteville State's first professional athlete when he signed a free-agent contract with the Baltimore Colts. Through the early fifties the women's program was just as fierce: the Broncoettes posted records of 15-1 in 1952 and 16-2 in 1953.
The 1950 football team took the EIAC Conference Championship with a 7-1 record — the only recorded football championship of that era. The fortunes had been climbing since 1946, when "Big Gus" Gaines took the helm and built a full program with tennis and track for men and basketball and tennis for women. Thirteen Broncos made the 1951 All-EIAC team, seven on the first team.
The Broncos joined the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1954. From the beginning things were tough in football, and the school's own history admits the Broncos became everyone's favorite homecoming guest. Basketball, though, maintained a measure of its glory under a succession of coaches.
Dr. Rudolph Jones succeeded Seabrook in 1956, and under his leadership the curriculum expanded to include secondary education majors and — after a 1959 charter revision — programs leading to degrees outside the teaching field entirely. Six additions were made to the physical plant to accommodate rapidly expanding enrollment. The school became Fayetteville State College in 1963, and FSC students were active participants in the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties, helping to bring about integration in Fayetteville.
Dr. Charles A. Lyons Jr. became president in 1969, and in that year the college was formally renamed Fayetteville State University and designated a regional university by an act of the state legislature. In 1972 the school became a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina, and Lyons became its first chancellor. Under him FSU became a Comprehensive Level I institution in 1985 offering baccalaureate and master's programs, added eight buildings, and created the Fort Bragg–Pope Air Force Base Extension Center and the Weekend and Evening College so military personnel and full-time workers could earn degrees. Lyons met President Jimmy Carter in 1978 while serving as president of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, and the two discussed preserving the quality of HBCUs.
Women's sports, discontinued in 1960 after a final team that featured Hall of Fame player Shirley Autry, were reinstated with the passage of Title IX. Lauraette J. Taylor returned to lead the women's basketball program and guided the Lady Broncos to the CIAA finals (runner-up) in 1974, the tournament consolation game in 1975, and the tournament runners-up spot again in 1976.
Men's basketball reached its greatest heights under Tom Reeves, a coach the school history remembers as a little man with a great smile who knew how to win. The Broncos were tournament runners-up in 1972, and Reeves promised the Bronco family a championship — and delivered in 1973. Before the dust settled, tragedy struck: Reeves died in the spring of 1973, and the program has not reached such heights since. His replacement Otis Hawkins was removed for allegedly slapping a player, and Dr. Joe Robinson's team was forced to forfeit more than a dozen wins in 1976 after an ineligible transfer was discovered.
Under the mentorship of Maceo Smith, the Lady Broncos won the 1979 CIAA Women's Basketball Championship. It was Smith's first and last year coaching basketball — one season, one championship.
Dr. Lloyd V. Hackley became the eighth chief executive officer on January 1, 1988, and in his seven years expanded master's offerings into biology, business administration, education, English, history, mathematics, psychology, and sociology. In 1994 he established FSU's first doctoral program, in Educational Leadership. He strengthened community outreach to at-risk children in the public schools and completed the university's first major public capital campaign to increase privately funded scholarships. Upon leaving he became the first African American president of the North Carolina Community College System.
The Felton J. Capel Arena was completed in 1995 — a multimillion-dollar health, physical education, and recreation building with racquetball courts, weight rooms, a dance studio, an indoor Olympic-size pool, and a 4,000-seat arena, known as one of the best in NCAA Division II. That same year Dr. Willis B. McLeod, class of 1964, became the ninth chief executive officer and the first alumnus to serve as chancellor. His Freshman Year Initiative aimed to lift student outcomes, campus buildings were improved — all air-conditioned — and fourteen CIAA championships during the era bolstered Bronco pride.
Fifteen years of frustration ended in 2002: the Broncos went undefeated in conference play, capped by a 30-26 four-overtime televised win over Winston-Salem State to take the Southern Division, then beat Bowie State 17-14 inside Bowman Gray Stadium for the school's first-ever CIAA football championship. FSU went back-to-back in 2003, returning to the title game and defeating Virginia Union 23-19 in Durham on N.C. Central's campus. A three-peat bid in 2004 died in a 10-7 loss to Shaw. The same year the program added women's bowling as a varsity sport — a first for the CIAA.
Dr. Thelma Jane "T.J." Bryan was elected by the UNC Board of Governors to become the first female chancellor of the school — and the first African American woman to head a UNC institution. Under her leadership the university greatly expanded program offerings, created a four-year nursing program and an Honors Program, secured specialized accreditations, and became third in the UNC system in distance-learning enrollments.
The Broncos returned to the CIAA championship game in 2009 and defeated Bowie State 21-10 at Durham County Stadium for the program's third conference title. The late Kenny Phillips had reached the championship game in his third season as head coach, and the title game appearance was FSU's fourth.
Beginning in 2017, Fayetteville State reached the CIAA football championship game seven consecutive seasons — one of the most consistent runs in the conference. The Broncos lost the 2017 game to Virginia State, then fell to Bowie State in 2018, 2019, and 2021 (the 2020 game was canceled by COVID), with the 2021 loss making them the first team in nearly forty years to drop four straight title games. Head coach Richard Hayes Jr. led the program to four Southern Division titles in his first five seasons, and the breakthrough came in 2022 with the fourth CIAA crown in school history.
On March 15, 2021, Darrell T. Allison took the helm as the twelfth chief executive officer and chancellor. His stated vision: advance FSU's work educating military-affiliated students, invest in the Office of Career Services, keep FSU one of the most affordable universities in North Carolina, and build a culture of active listening, collaboration, and mutual respect. Dr. Peggy Valentine had served as interim chancellor from August 2019 to early 2021.
Bronco Pride Hall — a $50-million, 87,930-square-foot residence hall housing 336 freshmen and sophomores — opened for the fall 2025 semester on the former site of Vance Hall, its name chosen by the students themselves. Enrollment broke records, reaching an all-time high of 7,628 in the 2025-26 academic year, up 7.3 percent. And the Marching Bronco Xpress advanced to ESPN's 2025 Red Lobster Band of the Year National Championship — the program's first appearance in the competition's three-year history — facing Miles College on December 12 at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
On August 20, 2026, the university opened its new $69.3-million College of Education building — four stories, 72,000 square feet, funded by capital appropriations from the North Carolina General Assembly. Chancellor Allison called it a full-circle moment: nearly 160 years after seven men pooled $136 to educate Black children, the school they started was still answering the call to prepare teachers. "Teacher education was our founding purpose," he said at the ribbon cutting. A $11-million parking deck is expected to finish in spring 2027.
The annual Southern Division showdown decides who rules the CIAA South. The most famous meeting is the 2002 regular-season finale: a 30-26 four-overtime televised thriller that FSU had to win to take the division — and did — before beating Bowie State for the conference crown. In 2018 a season-ending loss to WSSU likely ended the Broncos' playoff hopes even as they claimed the division.
No two programs have met more often with the conference title on the line. FSU beat Bowie State 17-14 in the 2002 title game for its first CIAA crown and 21-10 in the 2009 game for its third — then the Bulldogs became the wall, beating FSU in the 2018, 2019, and 2021 championship games, the last making FSU the first team in nearly forty years to lose four straight title games.
Fayetteville State holds a 29-18-2 advantage in the all-time series, and recent meetings have been season-defining: in 2024 the Broncos walked into Charlotte and stunned an 8-0, nationally ranked JCSU team 27-0, and on November 1, 2025 the Golden Bulls returned the favor 17-14 in a No. 2 vs. No. 3 CIAA showdown in Fayetteville. FSU also blew JCSU out 55-12 in an earlier meeting and beat the Bulls at homecoming in another.
Shaw denied FSU a three-peat in the 2004 CIAA championship game, winning 10-7 in Durham, and the Bears are still spoiling Bronco seasons — edging FSU 38-35 in Charlotte on October 26, 2024.
🥁 Marching Bronco Xpress (MBX)
The Marching Bronco Xpress is the pulse of game day at Luther "Nick" Jeralds Stadium, with the X-Factor Drumline and the Queens of the MBX dance line anchoring its identity. In November 2018 the band shocked the rankings by taking the top Division II spot in the ESPN/The Undefeated HBCU band rankings on drill, design, and musicality — right after Hurricane Florence had scattered the band and canceled practices. The 2025 season took MBX to the national stage for the first time, competing for the Division II HBCU band championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and the band opened the 2026 rankings second in Division II behind Virginia State. Directors before Al Davis could not be verified from open sources.
Director of bands during the early 2010s; a 2012 performance video of the band playing "Square Biz" names him in the director's role.
Named director of bands in September 2015 after 14 years as assistant and then director of bands at North Carolina Central University; a FAMU bachelor's, FSU master's in oboe, and Boston University doctorate. He led MBX through the Hurricane Florence-disrupted 2018 season that earned the band a top Division II spot in the ESPN/The Undefeated HBCU band rankings, then left to become director of bands at Morgan State University.
A Fayetteville native from the FSU/Murchison Road community, 2002 graduate of E. E. Smith High School's Magnificent Marching Machine, with a bachelor's from North Carolina Central and a master's in music education from UNC Greensboro. He led the Marching Bronco Xpress to the program's first ESPN Red Lobster Band of the Year National Championship appearance in December 2025.
Greek life is woven into Bronco homecoming — the 2023 homecoming schedule lists Center Stage at the Greek Plots area, and the 2022 homecoming parade featured the campus Pan-Hellenic Council, with Omega Psi Phi's Delta Gamma chapter step shows dating back years. At homecoming halftime the reunions double as fundraisers: Phi Beta Sigma presented a $25,000 check in 2023. Kappa Alpha Psi is represented on campus — current director of bands Austin Chalmers is a member — though a chapter charter year could not be verified.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
Built as one of the finest sports facilities of its time, it hosted college tournaments and became the home of the National Association of High School Basketball Tournament for three straight years — only losing it because rules barred a single site from hosting more than three years in a row.
The football complex, called Smith Stadium in 1962 and later Bronco Stadium, was renamed for Luther "Nick" Jeralds in 1993. It remains the Broncos' home field, where the Marching Bronco Xpress performs and the Blue Zone tailgates pack in on fall Saturdays.
The multimillion-dollar health, physical education, and recreation building became the centerpiece of FSU athletics: racquetball courts, weight rooms, a dance studio, an indoor Olympic-size pool, and a 4,000-seat arena, regarded as one of the best in NCAA Division II.
The Charles W. Chesnutt Library transformed its spaces and services around a One Stop for Advising and Student Success and an Adult Learning Center. The same year the American Library Association awarded the library a $20,000 grant to buy laptops for students.
In September 2024 a Chick-fil-A opened in the university-owned Bronco Midtown Plaza across Murchison Road from the main campus, part of a deliberate expansion of dining options near campus.
A two-story Starbucks opened on campus in January 2025, adding to the dining and gathering footprint for a growing student body.
The $50-million, 87,930-square-foot residence hall opened for the fall 2025 semester on the former site of Vance Hall on East Campus, housing 336 freshmen and sophomores in single and double rooms with private bathrooms, plus study rooms, a full kitchen, laundry, and a glass-walled central lounge. The students themselves chose the name — Chancellor Allison stressed it was not mandated by the administration — and the ribbon was cut August 11, 2025.
Opened in fall 2026 as a food truck space on campus so students and staff no longer have to cross Murchison Road for variety — the university's dining chief called it an intentional innovation in campus food, and students responded with enthusiasm.
The $69.3-million, four-story, 72,000-square-foot College of Education building opened August 20, 2026, funded by capital appropriations from the North Carolina General Assembly. It is the university's full-circle investment: a new home for the teacher-training mission the school was founded on in 1867, opened as enrollment hit all-time highs.
A parking deck near the food truck hub is expected to reach completion in spring 2027, addressing the campus's chronic parking crunch as enrollment grows.
A university dedication program names a science complex for chancellor Charles A. Lyons Jr.; the year of the dedication could not be verified from open sources.
The athletic director and provost could not be verified from open sources checked. Football under Richard Hayes became the athletic department's flagship, with seven consecutive CIAA championship game trips from 2017 through 2023. Notable historic coaches include "Big Gus" Gaines (football, from 1946; also returned to basketball in 1968), Tom Reeves (1973 CIAA basketball title), Maceo Smith (1979 women's basketball title), and Raymond McDougal, the winningest football coach in school history.
12th chief executive, in office since March 2021; record enrollment and major capital projects on his watch.
Led the Broncos to four Southern Division titles in his first five seasons and the 2022 CIAA championship.
Quoted on the opening of Bronco Pride Hall as "a powerful investment in our students and their success."
Spoke to the university's dining expansion strategy around The Shoe food truck hub and Bronco Midtown Plaza.
With more than 78 registered student organizations, a bi-weekly student newspaper (The Voice) and a student-run online station (Bronco-iRadio), the campus hums most of the year — but homecoming week is the city's main event. As of fall 2023 the undergraduate population was about 63 percent Black, 15 percent White, and 10 percent Hispanic, with 57 percent low-income — one of the most diverse HBCUs in the nation, and deeply tied to the military community around Fayetteville. The school's own student paper captured the 2022 parade's spirit: hundreds of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and families lining Murchison Road, the chancellor riding in the parade, and the band bringing MBX alumni back for the day.