HBCU GO puts spotlight on Black culture

(News4usOnline) – The culture. The lifestyle. The schools. The bands. The brand. The sports. Promoting the Black experience. That’s what HBCU Go is all about.  

The 2025 Las Vegas HBCU Classic featuring a college football game at Allegiant Stadium between Jackson State and Grambling State University will give HBCU Go a primetime look this weekend with its broadcast partnership with Amazon Prime Video.   

“What exactly is HBCU GO? Well, it’s a streaming app and network that was originally created by Curtis Symonds,” said Jon Kelly, who serves as lead color analyst for HBCU Go and executive producer for Allen Media Group. 

“That was his brainchild. Curtis Symonds goes way back to the BET sports days. He helped get that off the ground with Bob Johnson back in the 80s. He went on to work at ESPN and he’d always had this affinity for black college sports,” Kelley remarked during a Zoom interview. “Used to be the behemoth and the only place you could get it. And as he came into this new wave, he started seeing a need for it. The schools did not get the shine, the spotlight. He created the idea and the vision for HBCU GO, which would stream not only black college sports, but black college culture.”

If you want your fix for Black college sports, then you should make HBCU Go your home. The voice of Black college sports has long been neglected and set aside as some arbitrary programming and entertainment used as a sideshow. Well, that’s not the case anymore. 

Allen Media Group (AMG), led by media mogul Byron Allen, are seeing to it that Black college sports get the rightful attention it deserves. 

“HBCU sports consistently delivers some of the world’s best athletes and competition available,” said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. “The Las Vegas HBCU Classic is a great event for true sports fans.”

HBCU Go, which was purchased by AMG in 2021, finally gives the nation’s 107 historically black colleges and universities a media platform solely dedicated to the sports, culture and lifestyle of those attending or have attended HBCUs. 

In essence, HBCU Go showcases the Black experience and gives HBCU sports and entertainment a voice that currently escapes the mainstream media mediums. 

“And for black college sports, they weren’t even getting it regionally on a regular basis,” Kelley said. “So the importance is these colleges are vital. They’ve always been underserved, under nurtured, and also underfunded. And this is a way to put the spotlight, one, on great student athletes, on great students, on great campuses, and also great instructors.”

The attention generated by HBCU Go not only showcases the richness of Black campus life, it presents funding opportunities for these universities as well, Kelley went on to say. 

“There’s a Forbes magazine article I saw back in like 2020 that showed the underfunding for predominantly black colleges by billions of dollars. So there’s been a system in place to keep these schools down,” Kelley said. “And by putting a spotlight, getting the recognition, getting the attention, really helps not only for these athletes and the students, but then the funding and recruiting of other students and the celebration…I think it’s just vital to what’s going on.”

Jackson State and Grambling State are bedrocks when it comes to the Black college football experience. Both schools are represented by all-time greats.

 Willie Brown, wide receiver Charlie Joiner and Super Bowl XXII-winning quarterback Doug Williams are just a few of the names that have come from Grambling’s storied football program. 

And you can’t associate Jackson State without calling on the names of Pro Football Hall of Fame players like the late, great running back Walter Payton, offensive tackle Jackie Slater, and linebacker Robert Brazille.  

For HBCU Go lead play-by-play commentator James Hadnot, there is definitely a hunger for the experience that historically black college and universities cultivates. HBCU Go, through platforms like HBCUGO.tv, FanDuel TV, The HBCUGO app, and TheGrio Cable Network, Amazon Prime Video, and Armed Services Network, allows fans to have access to this lifestyle in whatever space or platform they use.    

“This is access that wasn’t given to individuals that were black and brown people at one point in time,” Hadnot stated. “And so that access now on the flip side, we’re giving that to, to others and to be seen, to be celebrated and really for people that only see their own college, but also to let others know out there that there are other options in regards to universities. And so that they can kind of go to school to be around people that look like them and to enjoy that experience.”

Hadnot went on to add that the HBCU experience brings to the table a point of connectivity that probably wouldn’t be shared elsewhere.  

“It fosters camaraderie. It fosters family,” Hadnot said. “My mother went to an HBCU. She went to Fisk. My brother graduated from Morehouse. And so it’s not only a family environment, but it also allows for opportunity. And so I think that’s the most important thing and why it’s important to me to kind of promote and be a part of this.”