Lincoln reinstates football and band

If all goes according to plan, Lincoln University (in Chester Co, PA) will soon awaken to the sounds of football pads cracking and a marching band.

Lincoln, a school that counts Thurgood Marshall and Langston Hughes among its alumni, yesterday announced that it plans to revive a football program that was dropped after the 1960 season because of budget cuts. It also will form a marching band.

The university plans to field a club team in 2008 and a varsity team in 2009 that will play on the Division II level in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

"The university has an honored tradition of providing opportunities for students," Lincoln president Ivory V. Nelson said in a press release. "We believe the marching band will provide music opportunities for our young men and women, and that our football program will attract young men who want to be successful in the classroom as well as on the field of competition."

Founded in 1854, Lincoln, which has 2,278 undergraduate and graduate students, first fielded a football team in 1894. The university's board of trustees voted on Saturday to revive the program.
"It's going to bring a different atmosphere to Lincoln. We can watch the team practice, and there will be a band. The environment will change," said Frank "Tick" Coleman, the schools start quarterback from 1935-1938.

Coleman said he and other alumni have been pushing Lincoln to restore football for decades.