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“How could we give back?”
One of the most intriguing college football games of the 2025 season, The HBCU College Football Puerto Rico Bowl on October 18th between Kentucky State and Franklin Pierce, started with this question. Rhonda Russell-Henderson, co-founder of the Caribbean Athletic and Education Cooperative, and her business partner, who had recently moved to Puerto Rico, were seeking ways to get involved with the commonwealth’s community. That’s when the idea of an HBCU classic came to mind.
Russell-Henderson, a reading specialist, found that most students in Puerto Rico did not have access to the resources available to learn English. From the question of how to raise money for a literacy program came the question that changed everything.
“Why not bring football to the Island?”
While most games outside of the United States are planned multiple years in advance, Russell-Henderson and her team have only had about nine months to plan the game. One of the first steps was to find an interested school. It was so late in the game that options were limited, but Kentucky State showed interest.
Why Kentucky State? Kentucky State is one of the smallest HBCUs, public or private, with a 2023-2024 enrollment of 1689 students. Turns out, the university sees the game as an opportunity to recruit new students. Being the first HBCU to establish roots in the over three million-person island is an opportunity Kentucky State is excited about. The opportunity is so exciting that they signed a three-year contract with the Caribbean Athletic Education Cooperative. Kentucky State has even offered in-state tuition for students from Puerto Rico.
The HBCU College Football Puerto Rico Bowl had one committed team, but they needed another to seal the deal.
Five years after transitioning its football program from Sprint Football, the lesser-known form of college football with a weight limit of 178 pounds, to Division II, Franklin Pierce finally made its arrival to the Northeastern college football scene official.
The Ravens nearly beat a school from one of the FCS's most storied conferences, the Coastal Athletic Association. A late touchdown and some questionable calls helped Bryant escape with a win over the upstart Ravens. Unfortunately, while raising the profile of the football team, this created issues for Franklin Pierce. No longer perceived as an easy win, the Ravens struggled to add a 10th and final game to their schedule.
Franklin Pierce athletic director Matt Johnson explained that his program had been searching for a game for four months and was exploring local Division III opponents in March just to fill the schedule.
That is when Kentucky State came calling. While transcontinental conferences are the norm in the FBS, intersectional trips are rarer at the Division II and Division III level. Franklin Pierce head coach Russell Gaskamp had doubts they could make it work at first. However, as Franklin Pierce struggled to find a final game, Gaskamp became more open to playing Kentucky State
“I'm sitting here thinking like, I guess I'm going to reach back out to Kentucky State and see, you know, we can figure out something to make something work,” Gaskamp reflected.
Despite Gaskamp's doubts, Kentucky State was persistent. That is when the revelation came. This was not just any intersectional game.
Kentucky State’s football coach told Gaskamp, “It's going to be the Caribbean HBCU classic in San Juan, Puerto Rico.”
The news floored Gaskamp.
The opportunity stunned Gaskamp, but he immediately wondered how it would work out. “Oh my gosh, I'm trying to think how to even, you know, figure that out in my head, how do you do that?”
The opportunity to be part of the first college football game in Puerto Rico excited Gaskamp.
“What an awesome opportunity for our guys. I mean, you know, be the first two Division II programs or anybody that's ever going to play in [Puerto Rico] at the college level,” Gaskamp exclaimed.
Gaskamp joked with his team that Summer practice attendance was a prerequisite for making the trip with the team to Puerto Rico.
“I'm only going to consider guys that stay here to train over the summer go on the trip. I was joking with them, but. Guess what? Those numbers bounced up really quickly,” Gaskamp joked.
Furthermore, overnight trips in Division II are rare. The unique journey is something that Franklin Pierce athletic director Matt Johnson expressed enthusiasm for.
“These things are great for teams, are great bonding experiences, to get away, spend a couple of days in hotels together,” Johnson explained.
The HBCU College Football Puerto Rico Bowl will cover all of Kentucky State and Franklin Pierce's travel and lodging expenses; however, other difficulties make matters more complicated. Unlike neutral site games here in the States, organizers must broker deals with Puerto Rico's local government to use facilities.
“Here in Puerto Rico, everything is very personal, so you have to go talk to the mayor,” Russell-Henderson explained.
At first, Mayaguez offered to host the game, but at the last minute, Russell-Henderson and her team had to change the game's site to Rincon. The Caribbean Athletic and Education Cooperative figured out the location issue, but every football field needs goal posts. Estadio Fernando “Nando” Sanabria in Rincon, Puerto Rico will host the game, but it is a baseball stadium. Russell-Henderson and her team found a solution in a local vendor offering to make goalposts for a fee. Additionally, the baseball stadium must be transformed into a suitable football venue. Russell-Henderson estimated the process would take two days.
The HBCU College Football Puerto Rico Bowl will have the feel of a bowl game with numerous events attached to it. Russell-Henderson mentioned that both teams would participate in youth sports clinics and visits with schools.
In a landscape where college football games abroad are blatant cash grabs, the Puerto Rico HBCU Classic is a breath of fresh air. The classic opens the door for enrollment opportunities for small schools while giving back to an overlooked community. As college football spreads throughout the world through commercial greed, the HBCU College Football Puerto Rico Bowl represents the goodwill and contribution to the community that college football can bring. Finally, it will be an experience that players on Kentucky State and Franklin Pierce will likely never forget.
