Most colleges are being creative when they call their rivalries a Backyard Brawl even though the schools aren’t literally close enough to share a lawn.
But at Clark Atlanta and Morehouse, their players actually could step outside their respective campus buildings and walk a few yards to settle their differences.
The campuses are adjacent in Atlanta’s West End. Their academic offerings intersect as part of the Atlanta University Center, and they share the Robert W. Woodruff Library.
Those circumstances add a unique sense of familiarity and contempt to the 107-year old football rivalry, which continues Thursday night at Morehouse’s B.T. Harvey Stadium.
“With the schools being so close, that’s what causes all the hostility,” Clark Atlanta senior linebacker Harrison Porter said. “Going to school during the week, you see the [Morehouse] guys, and some of those guys make themselves visible this week. You just have to channel the energy in the right direction.”
The proximity and interconnectedness of the two schools can create potentially awkward situations.
Morehouse senior running back David Carter took a class at Clark Atlanta during his sophomore year. He said the experience was fine, but his classmates let him have it when he wore his Morehouse gear to class.
“It was kind of rough,” he said. “They were all saying, ‘You are at Clark. Why are you wearing that?’”
There was similar tension at the joint Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast held by the teams Wednesday.
“It was kind of strange seeing them because we don’t interact as much as people might think, except maybe at Woodruff,” Morehouse wide receiver Paul Parker said. “You’ve got people looking at each other certain ways. Nonetheless, everybody is out there trying to make the best out of the situation.”
Clark Atlanta coach Daryl McNeill, in his second season, is relatively new to the rivalry. It didn’t take him long to figure out the passions that run through it — and the wisdom in trying to contain them.
McNeill said he has tried to focus on the “togetherness” of the schools as part of the AUC and their common missions as historically black colleges and universities. He said the intense rivalry is fine “but at some point and time we have to pull for each other.”
“We try to curtail [the animosity] as best we can,” McNeill said. “With us being in proximity, we don’t want anything taken from the field to the campus. You never want to build it up until you literally, literally hate each other, to where it’s, ‘We are not going over there to go to class’ or ‘they are not coming over here.’”
Instead, the Panthers (2-2, 1-0 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) and Maroon Tigers (3-1, 1-0) will take the rivalry to the field. Morehouse has won seven of the past 10 meetings, including a 17-7 victory at Clark Atlanta last season, but still trails the all-time series 48-32-2.
Parker said beating Clark Atlanta is about school pride as much as athletic superiority.
“There is a certain confidence a Morehouse man has — it’s a certain mystique that he has,” he said. “And I suppose Clark has the same feeling, that no one sets the same standard. That enhances the rivalry, that feeling that the place we are going to school offers more than the other.”
That’s a thread that runs through most rivalries, and there are other colleges with campuses in close proximity. Examples include Florida State and Florida A&M in Tallahassee, and Houston and Texas Southern.
But those respective rivals compete at different levels of NCAA Division I football. The Morehouse-Clark Atlanta rivalry is unique because they are at the same level (Division II) and in the same neighborhood.
“If we lose, it’s 365 days of them talking to us around here,” Carter said. “There is a saying about ‘controlling the yard’ and getting the win. It’s a big thing.”
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