Edward Waters College to Reintroduce Football Program After 35-Year Absence
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
Citing a need to increase enrollment, especially of Black men, Jacksonville’s Edward Waters College plans to reintroduce intercollegiate football this fall, if the college can raise $2 million dollars. The move comes after a 35-year
absence of the game.
In a recent communiqué, Edward Waters president Dr. Jimmy Jenkins noted that the highest enrollment recorded at the school — 1,500 students — coincided with their past football era. “Ironically, since 1966, the year the college dropped football, there has been a steady decline in the student enrollment, down to 319 students in 1997, the year I became EWC’s 26th president,” says Jenkins.
Today, enrollment at EWC has increased to over 1,000 students. Since the announce-
ment of the return to football, over 100 male students have applied for enrollment, according to Jenkins. “Our student population is now almost 55 percent male and 45 percent female, when before the announcement the statistics were just the opposite,” he says.
In order to endow the football program, the school has raised over half of the $2
million dollars needed to get the program off the ground this fall. The school will not start the program until the goal is met.
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
