{"id":150497,"date":"2025-09-09T15:45:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/?p=150497"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:46:16","slug":"famu-and-florida-state-to-renew-basketball-rivalry-after-34-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/2025\/09\/09\/famu-and-florida-state-to-renew-basketball-rivalry-after-34-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida State and FAMU to meet in basketball after three decades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After more than three decades, Florida A&amp;M University (FAMU) and Florida State University will once again face off on the basketball court. FSU announced today that it will host the Rattlers on\u00a0<strong>October 26,<\/strong> in an exhibition game, marking the first meeting between the two programs since a fiery contest in\u00a0December 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-rivalry-stopped-in-its-tracks\">A Rivalry Stopped in Its Tracks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The last matchup between the Rattlers and Seminoles ended abruptly when a heated altercation between the teams escalated into a full-scale melee. At the center of the fray were both squads\u2019 marquee players\u2014Doug Edwards\u00a0for Florida State and\u00a0Reginald Finney\u00a0for FAMU. What began as an on-court disagreement spilled into the stands, where even fans became involved. The incident between two schools literally separated by train tracks, brought an abrupt end to the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The game itself had been arranged by then-State Representative\u00a0Al Lawson Jr., a standout Rattler basketball player in the 1960s. Lawson later served as an assistant coach at FSU during its historic\u00a01972 Final Four run, before a loss to John Wooden\u2019s UCLA dynasty. Ironically, FAMU\u2019s 9,000-seat arena now bears Lawson\u2019s name, making his legacy a symbolic bridge between the two programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-florida-state-star-to-return-to-alma-mater\">Florida State star to return to alma mater<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The timing of this renewal carries added significance with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/tag\/charlie-ward\/\">Charlie Ward\u00a0stepping in as FAMU\u2019s new head coach<\/a>. Ward, a Tallahassee native with deep family ties to FAMU, was a two-sport star at FSU. He quarterbacked\u00a0Bobby Bowden\u2019s 1993 national championship team, won the\u00a0Heisman Trophy, and was also a four-year letterman in basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though undrafted by the NFL, Ward was selected in the first round of the\u00a01994 NBA Draft\u00a0by the New York Knicks, where he enjoyed a decade-long career before finishing with stints at Houston and San Antonio. After retiring, Ward turned to coaching, guiding Florida State University School (K-12) to a\u00a0<strong>2<\/strong>022 state basketball championship\u00a0and another state final appearance. His name was even floated as a potential successor to longtime FSU head coach\u00a0Leonard Hamilton upon his retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ward also has a personal connection to the rivalry\u2019s stormy past. He was a member of the\u00a01991 Seminoles team\u00a0involved in the brawl that halted the series. Now, more than 30 years later, his steady presence is viewed as a unifying factor in helping restart the long-dormant matchup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-looking-ahead\">Looking Ahead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With Ward leading FAMU and\u00a0Luke Loucks\u00a0recently appointed as FSU\u2019s head coach, both sides see this as the right moment to restore the cross-town rivalry. For the city of Tallahassee, the game represents not just a renewal of competition, but also an opportunity to mend history and showcase the region\u2019s rich basketball tradition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New FAMU head coach Charlie Ward will take his HBCU squad to face his alma mater in October. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":150498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.136,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.6785,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.85,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.2,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.9,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.27,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.02,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.47,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[573635622,573627801,573627536,573627543],"tags":[389950,573627544,573627534,468618],"class_list":["post-150497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-2026-hbcu-basketball","category-famu","category-basketball","category-swac","tag-famu","tag-featured","tag-hbcusports","tag-swac"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v24.7) - 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