Jafus Kenyatta Cavil currently serves as the Acting Dean and Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Education at Texas Southern University. He is a professor (sport management/sport studies/sports entertainment) in the Department of Health, Kinesiology and Sport Studies with a joint appointment in the School of Communication. Cavil is the co-editor of the textbook titled, The Athletic Experience at Historically Black Colleges and Universities – Past, Present, and Persistence with Billy Hawkins, Joseph Cooper, and Akilah Carter-Francique. Dr. Cavil’s Inside the #HBCU Sports Lab with Mike Washington and Charles Bishop, ultra-popular with HBCU sports fans, the streaming show airs twice a week on various digital media platforms.
Dr. J. Kenyatta Cavil
Adrienne Cain Darough
Adrienne Cain Darough is a librarian, oral historian, and certified archivist who currently serves as the assistant director of the Institute for Oral History and senior lecturer at Baylor University. As another part of her role, she serves the oral history profession as the secretary-treasurer for the Texas Oral History Association. Prior to Baylor, Cain Darough worked for the Houston Public Library where she served as the Oral History and Media Librarian for the Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC) and the Oral History Librarian for the African American Library at the Gregory School. She is a proud graduate Prairie View A&M University and earned a master’s in library science from University of North Texas.
Michael Hurd
Michael Hurd is an author and historian who recently retired as director of the Texas Institute for the Preservation of History and Culture at Prairie View A&M University. He serves on the selection committee for the Black College Football Hall of Fame and helped curate the exhibit area on Black college football for the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. He covered the SWAC for the Houston Post for nearly 20 years. His first book, Black College Football, 1892-1992 is the only book that comprehensively documents the legacies of football programs at historically Black colleges. He also wrote Thursday Night Lights: The Story of Black High School Football in Texas, which details the history of football programs at Texas’ all-Black high schools during segregation as part of the Prairie View Interscholastic League. The Texas Observer magazine named Thursday Night Lights one of “The 30 Best Texas Books of the 2010-2019 Decade”, and the Houston Chronicle included the book on its list of “The 30 most essential books about Texas.”
Jackson Michael
Jackson Michael is the director and founder of The Game Before the Money Oral History Foundation, a 501 (c) nonprofit based in Texas. His oral history The Game Before the Money: Voices of the Men Who Built the NFL was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2014. The Game Before the Money features interviews with 40 NFL legends who played between the 1930s and 1970s. He wrote and directed the documentary, We Were the Oilers: The Luv Ya Blue Era, which aired on cable and wrote the definitive book about the 1979 Houston Oilers, Red, White, and Columbia Blue. His work with the Oilers, a team with several former HBCU players, inspired him to document the history of HBCU football. He currently works as the host and producer of the The Game Before the Money podcast. The Game Before the Money was also a nationally syndicated radio show during the 2022 football season. Michael also worked as the host and producer of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame’s official podcast for several years.