Ten black ministers have pledged to sell 100 tickets each to the Oct. 6 Orange Blossom Classic football game here. And that leaves 39,000 to go, if the game’s chairman’s goal is to be met.
“People say we should be happy with 25-30,000,” said Mike Sullivan, director of the City’s Sports and Entertainment Board. “That isn’t what I want — I’m looking for 40.”
The game is between Florida A&M University and South Carolina State and Sullivan unveiled a marketing campaign that will be used here, in FAMU’s home base of Tallahassee and the Columbia/Orangeburg area of South Carolina. S.C. State is in Orangeburg, which is about 50 miles east of Columbia.
The local ministers were pulled together by Rev. Fred Newbill of the First Timothy Baptist Church, who is chairman of the Jacksonville Economic development Commission. The JEDC umbrella includes the sports board.
“We need to support this game,” Newbill said Friday morning. “We need to show FAMU that this is a good place to play their game.”
Sullivan announced a series of weekend events including a Friday night concert with the Isley Brothers, a Saturday morning parade with bands from each school and a post-game concert in the Coliseum.