Charlotte, North Carolina · Founded 1867 · Smitty the Golden Bull
“Charlotte's HBCU on Beatties Ford Road — the Golden Bulls, born in 1867, who won the first Black college football game ever played in the snow.”
IIOS takes the field at full strength in Canton, Ohio, for the 2026 season opener — the band at its biggest stage.
4K look at the 2026 IIOS marching in — drums, brass, and Blue Satin flags rolling through the tunnel.
IIOS halftime at Montgomery's Red Tails Classic, one of the band's signature road showcases.
The full 25-minute marching-in ritual against Virginia Union — drum majors, Blue Satin, section by section.
September 2026 tunnel march — the current Brock-era band up close.
IIOS at CIAA Fan Fest 2025 in Baltimore — brass, drumline, and high-energy routines for the conference crowd.
IIOS halftime performance on the road at Morehouse — a classic HBCU band exchange.
March 15, 2026 in Charlotte — IIOS goes head-to-head with FAMU's Marching 100, Talladega, WSSU, and Wilberforce.
Old-school JCSU drumline at Bowie State, circa 2000 — the Gray-era battery at full power.
JCSU hosted the 65th Intercollegiate Music Association conference in February 2026 — 14+ HBCU music programs on campus.
IIOS exhibition at Hopewell High — the band recruiting the next generation in Charlotte.
The full story of November 15, 2025 — 45-21 over Virginia Union, Kelvin Durham's 285 yards, the first title since 1969.
First African American officer in the United States Marine Corps.
First African American woman to represent North Carolina in Congress (1992–2003); later a UN Food and Agriculture Organization Assistant Director-General.
Civil rights pioneer — one of the first Black students at Charlotte's Harding High in 1957; the photo of her walking through a jeering mob went around the world.
First African American U.S. ambassador (to Liberia).
NFL tight end for the Cowboys and Chargers; the school's outstanding student-athlete award is named for him.
Harlem Globetrotters legend.
Two Olympic gold medals in sprinting, 1968 and 1972.
First president of what is now North Carolina A&T State University.
JCSU player, coach, teacher, and administrator for life; the gymnasium carries his name.
JCSU head football coach and athletic director; the football field is named for him.
First African-American woman gastroenterologist in the United States.
Civil rights attorney and judge.
First Black federal judge in North Carolina, appointed by President Carter in 1980.
Civil rights activist and lawyer; first Black female judge in Alabama.
Co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Organic chemist; first Black president of the American Chemical Society.
Influential avant-garde jazz pianist and organist.
New York City streetball legend 'The Goat,' called one of the greatest never to play in the NBA.
2015 world champion in the sprint hurdles.
First white All-CIAA and All-American at an HBCU; author of 'White Golden Bull.'
On April 7, 1867, the Catawba Presbytery met in the old Charlotte Presbyterian Church and established a school to educate freedmen as teachers and ministers. Two white Presbyterian ministers, the Rev. Samuel C. Alexander and the Rev. Willis L. Miller, became its first teachers. Mary D. Biddle of Philadelphia donated $1,400, and the school was named for her late husband, Major Henry J. Biddle, a Union officer killed after the Battle of Glendale in 1862. The first session opened May 1, 1867, with eight to ten students in a small church near Fourth and Davidson Streets, and its coordinate women's school was Scotia Seminary, now Barber-Scotia College.
Colonel William R. Myers, a wealthy Charlotte businessman and former Confederate officer, talked Alexander and Miller out of hauling the old Confederate Navy building to Seventh Street and instead gave them eight acres of farmland west of downtown on Beatties Ford Road. That gift became the nucleus of the university's present 105-acre campus. The irony was not lost on later generations: a Confederate officer's land became the permanent home of a school built to educate freed Black people.
The North Carolina legislature formally chartered the school in 1876, and the name became Biddle University, under which it operated until 1923. By 1888 the school had thirteen faculty members and 187 students, nearly a third of them preparing for the ministry, and tuition was free. Its first graduate, Daniel Wallace Culp of the class of 1876, went on to become a pastor, school principal, and doctor.
Biddle Memorial Hall, the centerpiece of campus, was completed in 1883-84 and has anchored the university ever since, joined early on by the Carnegie Library, one of the area's earliest surviving Neoclassical buildings. The hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 14, 1975. Alumni still speak of it as the soul of the campus — J. Charles Jones, class of 1960 and SNCC co-founder, recorded his memories of the hall for a university history film.
Biddle University elected the Rev. Daniel J. Sanders as president in 1891, making him the first African-American president of a four-year institution in the South. He led the school for sixteen years until his death in 1907, steering it out of its missionary-school beginnings toward a real college. His name lives on in campus life: the university's giving society for leadership donors is called the Sanders Society.
On December 27, 1892, two days after Christmas, the Biddle football team traveled by segregated rail to Salisbury and played Livingstone College on Livingstone's snow-covered front lawn — the first Black college football game in history. Historian T.M. Martin records that Biddle's men had spent two years studying and practicing the sport before issuing the challenge. The teams played two 45-minute halves in what was described as little more than a cow pasture; Biddle won 5-0 when an official ruled a disputed fumble recovery in their favor, and neither side had any idea they had just invented a tradition.
From 1921 to 1922, Jane Berry Smith of Pittsburgh poured money into Biddle — a theological dormitory, a science hall, a teachers' cottage, a memorial gate, and a large endowment, all in memory of her late husband Johnson C. Smith, reportedly a tin mill operator. President H. L. McCrorey announced on February 3, 1922 that the school would call itself The Johnson C. Smith University, and the legislature amended the charter on March 1, 1923. Smith kept giving until her death, funding five more buildings and the campus church.
James B. Duke created the Duke Endowment in 1924 and wrote Johnson C. Smith into the trust indenture: 4 percent of the endowment's earnings go to the university every year, a share that has since delivered more than $90 million. The same year, the North Carolina State Board of Education recognized JCSU as a four-year college. The Duke relationship remains the university's financial backbone a century later.
Johnson C. Smith joined the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1926, just fourteen years after the conference's founding, and has competed in it ever since. The Golden Bulls have now been a CIAA program for a full century. Conference membership gave the school's athletes a stage and its bands a circuit of classics that still define the fall.
The legislature amended the charter in 1932 to admit women to the junior and senior classes, ending 65 years as a men's institution. The first women's residence hall, named for James B. Duke, was dedicated in 1940; women entered the freshman class in 1941, and by 1942 the university was fully coeducational. The school earned an 'A' rating from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1933.
In April 1938, after 71 years under the Presbyterian boards of national missions, Johnson C. Smith became an independent Presbyterian institution, affiliated with the church through the Board of Christian Education. The tie to the Presbyterian Church (USA) survives today — JCSU is still a church-related university, one of the few HBCUs with that lineage.
The Golden Bulls won the Flower Bowl on January 1, 1942, shutting out Lane College 13-0 for the program's first postseason victory. It started a mid-century bowl run: JCSU beat Allen in the 1946 Cotton-Tobacco Bowl and again in the 1949 Iodine Bowl, and lost the 1946 Pecan Bowl to South Carolina NIA&M. Seven bowl appearances, four wins, three losses — a record built long before the modern playoff era.
Johnson C. Smith was a founding member of the United Negro College Fund in 1944, the collective organized to rescue church-related Black colleges with shared fundraising, revamped training programs, and expanded physical plants. The membership paid off: through UNCF and the Duke Endowment, JCSU entered an intense building phase from 1955 to 1968 that reshaped the campus.
Liston Hall, a 35,000-square-foot residence hall, opened in 1962 as part of the university's great expansion, alongside the Jack S. Brayboy Gymnasium, the James B. Duke Memorial Library, and the University Memorial Union — seven buildings in thirteen years, largely Duke Endowment-funded. Named for President Hardy Liston, it housed women first, then men, up to 148 students at a time. It stood 64 years before coming down in July 2026 to make room for a greener replacement.
The Golden Bulls won their first CIAA football championship in 1969, the high-water mark of the program's 20th century. They reached the first-ever CIAA championship game in 1970 and lost, and lost again in 1972 — then waited 55 years to get back. For generations, 1969 lived only in photographs, archives, and the memories of the alumni who were there.
The men's basketball team won the 2001 CIAA Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, the deepest postseason run in school history. More titles followed: the men won the 2008 CIAA championship, and in 2009 both the men and women swept the conference crowns, with both teams also taking the Western Division. Sports Illustrated called Brayboy Gymnasium 'one of the loudest gymnasiums in the country.'
The International Institution of Sound was one of eight HBCU bands chosen for the first-ever Honda Battle of the Bands Invitational at the Georgia Dome, playing before a sold-out crowd of more than 43,500. 'IIOS brought the house down with their unique, high-stepping and energetic musical performance,' the university reported, and Honda handed the school $10,000. The Charlotte alumni chapter chartered buses so alumni could be in the building for it.
In November 2021, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles announced the Mayor's Racial Equity Initiative, a private-and-corporate plan to close the city's racial equity gap — and Johnson C. Smith received $80 million, the university's largest single financial commitment ever. Nine million of it went straight to the Department of Facilities for a campus-wide summer 2023 renovation: new HVAC systems, LED lighting, repainted residence halls, a new roof, and turf for Eddie McGirt Field.
Following a national search, JCSU named Dr. Tomisha Brock director of Bands on October 6, 2023, charging her with restoring the International Institution of Sound to national prominence. Brock, who had directed bands at Clark Atlanta and Elizabeth City State and now leads the HBCU National Band and Orchestra Directors' Consortium, rebuilt the percussion program from literally nothing — 'we had no instruments prior to 2023,' she said — using a Mayor's Racial Equity Initiative grant to buy the drums and start over.
On November 15, 2025, Johnson C. Smith beat two-time defending champion Virginia Union 45-21 inside Durham County Memorial Stadium to win the CIAA football championship — the first since 1969, ending a 56-year drought. Quarterback Kelvin Durham threw for 285 yards and three touchdowns; the Bulls had punched their ticket by beating Livingstone 26-21 in the Commemorative Classic a week earlier. Ten wins set a program record, the school made its first-ever NCAA Division II playoff appearance, and the team finished ranked No. 11 nationally. The Charlotte City Council honored the champions on December 8, 2025.
On August 30, 2025, the Golden Bulls made history in Boston, defeating Morehouse College 45-9 in the first HBCU football game played at Harvard Stadium since the 1970s. The Essence HBCU Classic Weekend drew roughly 12,000 students, alumni, and supporters to Cambridge. It was the loudest possible announcement that JCSU football was back.
In June 2025 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed JCSU on Probation for Good Cause — the most serious sanction short of revoking accreditation — over financial controls. Three months later came relief: philanthropist MacKenzie Scott's landmark $70 million gift to UNCF, invested in the Members Pooled Endowment Fund, will benefit JCSU along with the other 36 private UNCF HBCUs. Crisis and rescue in the same year — a very JCSU story.
On September 10, 2025, the College of Business and Professional Studies cut the ribbon on its Finance/Tech Lab, built to put students hands-on with finance and financial markets and plugged into Charlotte's banking industry. The same fall, Homecoming 2025 debuted 'Diner en Bleu,' an alumni gala that painted the Queen City blue, and the student-run Golden Bulls Television covered the whole week.
On July 29, 2026, demolition crews began tearing down Liston Hall, the 64-year-old residence hall named for President Hardy Liston that had sat empty since before COVID. President Valerie Kinloch said replacing it would cost less than repairing it, and that the decision showed commitment to 'something more environmentally friendly and sustainable.' No replacement design has been chosen yet, but administrators say a live-and-learn space makes the most sense.
The Golden Bulls opened the 2026 season at the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic in Canton, Ohio, where the International Institution of Sound delivered a full halftime performance for a national audience. On the field, JCSU beat Albany State 27-7 behind new starting quarterback Damien Mazil and running back Fabian Duncan, as head coach Maurice Flowers began the title defense with roughly 60 new players on the roster.
The oldest rivalry in Black college football, born December 27, 1892, when Biddle beat Livingstone 5-0 in the snow at Salisbury. Formally renamed the Commemorative Classic in 2009, it is played every November as a living reenactment of the first HBCU game. All-time the series stands at JCSU 50, Livingstone 34, 3 ties. Recent chapters: Livingstone won the 132nd meeting 15-10 in 2024; JCSU took the 2025 game 26-21 to punch its ticket to the CIAA championship; the 2023 meeting in Charlotte was the 89th.
The in-state CIAA measuring stick — the Rams and Golden Bulls meet regularly in football and basketball, and their bands' marching-in showdowns are a staple of the fall circuit. No named classic was found in public sources, so this one runs on geography, conference stakes, and band bragging rights.
🥁 International Institution of Sound (IIOS)
The International Institution of Sound has been JCSU's frontline brand ambassador since at least the 1980s, a high-stepping, high-energy show band that director Duncan Gray once defended as rooted in Black funeral-procession traditions going back to slavery. IIOS played the first Honda Battle of the Bands in 2003, has marched the Red Tails Classic at Montgomery's Cramton Bowl, the CIAA Fan Fest, and the 2026 Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic in Canton. Directors between Gray and Brock could not be verified from public sources, and neither could the band's founding year — the program predates 1986, when its Kappa Kappa Psi chapter was chartered, and that is as far back as the record could be traced.
Longtime Director of Bands; a 1992 Charlotte arts publication names him in the role, he was a charter member of the Kappa Kappa Psi Theta Mu chapter installed at JCSU in 1986, and he led IIOS at the first Honda Battle of the Bands in 2003, where the band 'brought the house down' before 43,500 at the Georgia Dome.
Appointed October 2023 after a national search. A former band director at Clark Atlanta and Elizabeth City State, she rebuilt the program from scratch — the percussion ensemble had no instruments before her MREI grant — and serves as president of the HBCU National Band and Orchestra Directors' Consortium.
All nine National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations hold chapters at JCSU under the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement, which also oversees a United Greek Council — and Greek life is woven into homecoming, step shows, and the Royal Court scene. The multicultural lane is real too: Lambda Theta Alpha, the first Latina sorority founded in the U.S., has a chartered chapter. The band world has its own Greek presence: the Theta Mu chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary band fraternity, was installed October 19, 1986 — its charter members included band director Duncan Gray. Groove Phi Groove also holds a chapter; alumnus Chet Grimsley '78 pledged it during his All-CIAA playing days.
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Built with Duke Endowment support and named for President Hardy Liston, the 35,000-square-foot residence hall housed up to 148 students — women first, then men — and stood 64 years before its July 2026 demolition.
Built in memory of the university's great benefactor when the Carnegie Library could no longer hold the growing collection. It got a $7 million yearlong modernization in 1998 to become a digital-age information hub, and it houses Philadelphia artist Paul F. Keene Jr.'s 8.5-by-20-foot mural of the university's founding and development.
Seven buildings in thirteen years — the Jack S. Brayboy Gymnasium, the Duke Memorial Library, the University Memorial Union, Liston Hall, and three more — funded largely through UNCF membership and the Duke Endowment. It is still the biggest construction era in school history.
The 1883 administration building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 14, 1975, formalizing what alumni already knew: it is the architectural soul of the campus.
Paid for by the Mayor's Racial Equity Initiative and led by facilities director Erna Perkins-Jones: LED lighting and fresh JCSU branding in every residence hall, new HVAC in Greenfield Hall and Myers and Sanders Halls, a new roof on New Residence Hall, restored lounges in Mosaic Village, independent HVAC for Perry Hall, Davis Hall and the library, and Albright Hall converted into space for veteran and adult learners. Irwin Belk Complex was repainted and Eddie McGirt Field got new turf.
The student hangout in the Mary Joyce Taylor Crisp Student Union got an $80,000 facelift after JCSU placed third in The Home Depot's 2023 Retool Your School contest, unveiled during Homecoming week that October.
Ribbon-cut September 10, 2025, the Finance/Tech Lab gives business students hands-on market and finance tools and plugs the College of Business and Professional Studies directly into Charlotte's banking industry.
The 1962 residence hall came down July 29, 2026 after sitting empty since before COVID — President Kinloch said a green replacement costs less than a repair. No design is final, but a live-and-learn building is the leading concept.
The roughly 100-year-old campus church, funded by the gifts that renamed the university, still anchors ceremonial life — the 2025 Freshman Convocation processed from Biddle Hall to the church behind African drummers.
An MREI grant bought the percussion ensemble its first instruments in 2023 and the Black Box Theater became its proving ground, part of the broader Brock-era rebuild of the music program.
Notable faculty past and present: George Edward Davis taught natural science at Biddle for 35 years and later organized and fundraised for Rosenwald schools across North Carolina; Henry A. Hunt won the Spingarn Medal and served in Franklin D. Roosevelt's Black Cabinet; classicist Pinckney Warren Russell was a Presbyterian pastor and educator; Kelly Alexander has served in the North Carolina General Assembly. On the sidelines, JCSU's football staff has included NFL men Mike Minter and Steve Wilks as assistant coaches. Coaches Jack S. Brayboy and Eddie McGirt were JCSU lifers — gym and field carry their names.
JCSU class of 1996; scholar of urban education; 2025 Aspen Ascend Fellow.
Took the department through the 2025 CIAA championship season and the program's first DII playoff berth.
Led the 2025 CIAA championship team — 10 wins, a program record — and the title defense in 2026.
Named August 1, 2023 after serving as assistant coach and assistant AD.
Appointed October 2023; president of the HBCU National Band and Orchestra Directors' Consortium.
JCSU feels like a small school with a big-city pulse: about 1,100 students on 105 acres along Beatties Ford Road, minutes from uptown Charlotte. The Office of Student Leadership and Engagement runs SGA, the Royal Court, Greek life, the Golden Bulls Activities Committee, and more than 30 clubs, plus intramurals and recreation. The Luv-A-Bulls cheerleaders are celebrities in their own right — Essence profiled their sisterhood in 2026 — and the IIOS band is the heartbeat of every fall Saturday. Students call it the Bullpen culture: loud, proud, and all-in on the blue and gold.