Let's Move Macon's HBCU Classic to Luther Williams Field
Macon's venerable ballpark has never hosted a football game. Let's change that.
In late May, Savannah State released their schedule for the upcoming season and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary for the revitalized program. That is except for one aspect of their schedule as they quietly announced a game in Macon, Georgia against Fort Valley State University in a game dubbed the “Macon Central City HBCU Football Classic.”
The game is a great idea for all parties involved as both schools are within 2.5 hours away, with Fort Valley State a mere 30 minutes away from the hometown of Otis Redding. The game builds momentum for a Savannah State program that went 8-2 in 2021 and was on the cusp of its first postseason berth since 1992.
The Tigers’ last neutral site HBCU classic came in the 2021 Spring season as they played West Georgia in the inaugural Gulf Coast Challenge at Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The game drew a respectable pandemic crowd of 3499.
The stadium is to be determined but it may be played at Mercer’s 10,200 seat Five Star Stadium. On top of the awkward situation of using another school’s stadium for a regular-season game, the venue may be too big as well.
Macon and both schools need to do something to set this budding HBCU Classic apart and the answer lies in Luther Williams Field. Opened in 1929, the ballpark is home to the Macon Bacon of the Coastal Plains League and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Surprisingly, there has never been a football game at the park in its 93-year history, but its dimensions could fit a football stadium. With the left and right field walls 335 feet from home plate, a gridiron could be aligned with end zones at either baseline. The ballpark could even align the gridiron from home plate to center field with dead center 405 feet away.
One downside is Luther Williams’ tiny 3500 fan capacity, which will not accommodate fans of both schools, but it would provide a more intimate fan experience than Mercer’s Five-Star Stadium
This website has long salivated over ballpark football and although the fan experience and sightlines are often unorthodox, one cannot deny the utility of the concept. After all, Holy Cross is repeating the EBW Classic, their showcase at Worcester’s Polar Park this year, and Huntsville’s Toyota Field is hosting their own game this year.
Hosting a game at Luther Williams Field would give Savannah State and Fort Valley State fans an experience their SIAC counterparts lack. Despite the conference having the Tuskegee-Morehouse Classic at Legion Field, the Red Tails Classic at the Cramton Bowl, and the Fountain City Classic at Columbus’ AJ McClung Stadium, none of those experiences match a game at Luther Williams.
In the end, hosting a game at the ballpark will be a win for both the city of Macon and the SIAC