The new Celebration Bowl in Atlanta will be a national showcase to elevate Historically Black Colleges & Universities. Executive director John Grant intends for the event to offer much more than just football.
By Jenny DeLoach Zimmerman
John Grant has something to say. His statement will be college football’s newest postseason bowl game, the Celebration Bowl.
At noon Saturday, Dec. 19th, live on ABC, the inaugural Celebration Bowl will kick off from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, featuring the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference against the champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Grant, the chief executive officer of 100 Black Men of Atlanta for the past 14 years, will lead the Celebration Bowl as executive director.
“It’s not about who wins. I say, let’s all win,” Grant said. “I’m all about creating opportunities for people to win. When people win, our communities win. When communities win, our nation wins. That’s what this bowl game is about. If we’re able to do that, it will have meaning inclusive of the sport, but way beyond the sport.
“That is a statement worth making.”
Having made his home in Atlanta since 1985, Grant joined 100 Black Men of Atlanta at age 30 in 1988. Through three decades with the 100 -– whose mission emphasizes youth development and empowerment -– and with some influential guidance, Grant has developed a knack for taking the wheel. Helping to shape the Celebration Bowl as both an HBCU headliner and an opportunity to grow something bigger is a task for which he is prepared. For nearly 20 years, Grant helped direct the Atlanta Football Classic, an annual HBCU game presented by the 100 Black Men of Atlanta at the Georgia Dome.
“One of the mantras of 100 Black Men of Atlanta is, ‘What they see is what they’ll be,’ he said. “So, being CEO of an organization, first, of leaders, has given me the opportunity to grow myself personally. But leading leaders requires a skill set that I’ve been able to learn over the years through being mentored by people like Ambassador Andrew Young and former Mayor of Atlanta Maynard Jackson – being mentored by a number of successful men who invested in me.
“The Celebration Bowl is bigger than just the game itself. The Celebration Bowl is something important in the American landscape through the vehicle of sports. Being able to educate the nation to the significance of the colleges and universities in both the MEAC and SWAC conferences and those beyond is something that I think is different from any other bowl game played. This one has a unique value to it.”
Grant, recently selected as an inductee into the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau’s 2015 Hospitality Hall of Fame, serves on several boards in the metro area, including the Atlanta Sports Council, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, Central Atlanta Progress, Georgia Humanities Council, Emory University Center for Ethics, and the National Wildlife Federation. He also served on the working committee and advisory board for the Center for Civil and Human Rights along with the Early Learning Commission for the United Way. He is poised to bring a great mix of elements together in making the Celebration Bowl a marquee Atlanta event.
“I’ve made many, many relationships both in the city and the sponsorship arenas,” he said. “So bringing that experience to this bowl game I believe adds tremendous value to the success of this property in Atlanta.”
And, combined with Grant’s standing in the corporate community, it’s a great development for Atlanta. With the most significant population of HBCU alumni in the nation, Atlanta, a top travel destination and the college sports capital of the South, is perhaps the most natural location (with the world’s most bustling airport) for fans and alumni to gather for the season-ending festivities.
“All that makes it unique,” Grant said of his city. “Foremost, Atlanta offers a richness of history relevant to the nation and to African-Americans – really to all of America – which no other city in this country can claim. The appropriate question would be, ‘Why not Atlanta?’ I think the answer is clear.”
A Commitment to Diversity
The Celebration Bowl, owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, will build on the company’s commitment to diversity, and, more specifically, HBCU programming. ESPN Events Senior Director of Events Clint Overby calls the new bowl game a culmination of what began with the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, an ESPN Events venture that for 11 years has showcased teams from the two HBCU conferences in a season-opening football game with a bowl-like atmosphere.
“The Celebration Bowl is an extension of that commitment,” Overby said. “Not only does it have a complementary effect to the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, it has a legacy effect beyond the MEAC/SWAC Challenge as something we can build out over time, create a history around and really demonstrate the commitment that not only ESPN has but, I think, the City of Atlanta has toward HBCUs.”
ESPN, as well as MEAC and SWAC officials, sees Grant as the ideal person to lead the event.
“I’ve known John a long time,” said SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp. “John comes with a wealth of experience and knowledge, and he really knows the city of Atlanta. When you have someone with that type of experience, someone with that type of passion for HBCU football, you really can’t go wrong.”
ESPN immediately saw in Grant someone with substantial ability, as well as solid connections in the local community and the charisma to seize each opportunity to build up this event.
“We wanted someone who can be an advocate for us in the community and work within the local Atlanta corporate base, while at the same time working with our staff in Charlotte (N.C.) to pull off a great event,” Overby said.
Dr. Dennis Thomas, MEAC commissioner, looks forward to witnessing the culmination of talks between the MEAC, the SWAC and ESPN that began more than 10 years ago, when the MEAC/SWAC Challenge was in its infancy. At that time, the MEAC had an automatic qualifying bid for the Division I-AA playoffs, and the conference’s membership wanted to keep that AQ. Years passed, and the MEAC/SWAC Challenge grew, and all sides continued to have discussions about the prospect of a postseason bowl game.
“Finally this past year, the membership, and ultimately the presidents and the chancellors that make up our council of CEOs, had final approval,” Thomas said, “and ESPN … I give them credit, all the way from (ESPN President) John Skipper to (ESPN Executive VP, Programming and Scheduling) Burke Magnus to (ESPN Senior VP, College Networks, Programming) Rosalyn Durant to (ESPN Events Senior VP) Pete Derzis to Clint Overby, for making it happen. I guess all the stars lined up for us. [ESPN] has done an excellent job in involving diversity in their programming – and this is one of the reasons the postseason bowl game is so important. It adds another element to our branding, and it gives our student-athletes and our coaches the bowl experience; it enhances recruitment for not only student-athletes but all students for our institutions. The game being on ABC really speaks to ESPN’s commitment and courage to activate what they are committed to.”
ESPN Events, which operates 12 other college football bowl games, places a premium on developing a bond between those events and the communities in which they thrive. Each bowl game hosts ancillary events, including fan zones that maximize the family atmosphere during the pregame and tailgate festivities, charitable activities such as visits to local children’s hospitals, wellness forums, and abundant opportunities for the participating schools to gain exposure with potential new students and fans.
ESPN will collaborate with 100 Black Men of Atlanta to do that here, and Grant says he anticipates activities such as the Robotics Showcase and Invitational, which introduces young people to STEM (science, technology, engineering, math); youth symposiums that bring together young high school males to talk about and understand their path to a successful future; and fan experiences that engage people with health fairs and screenings, job fairs, college fairs.
“The Celebration Bowl will do something in that realm that no other bowl event does,” Grant said, “with the intent of engaging the community, particularly young people, and exposing them to the college experience.”
Overby concurs.
“We think the city of Atlanta will embrace it, and we look forward to building that up over time,” he said. “Fans should expect a celebration – great bands, great teams, great football, and a great atmosphere. That’s the objective. We want to make sure the players, coaches, fans, all come away from the event feeling really good about it, and we want to provide a great experience for them. That’s critical to our operation. That’s our best marketing.”
Sharp is ready to put his conference’s member schools in a spotlight they are eager and deserving to experience.
“It takes it to the next level,” he said. “We never had our own bowl game. Now we do. To actually have an agreement with ESPN, the game’s going to be on ABC, in the Georgia Dome – we really have a platform for our member institutions, our student-athletes and our coaches on a prime-time network to really show what both conferences are all about …
“For me, you can’t use the word excited too much; I tend to do so. Meeting with my presidents and chancellors, and then the coaches – to play for the SWAC championship in Houston is something they love. But then to have another game to move on to? It was insane when we announced that we had gotten the deal done to get this game. I’m really just looking forward to being in the building on the 19th.”
The excitement is, of course, contagious. Look no further than to Grant.
“My greatest aspiration for this bowl is that when fans finish watching this game that they walk away knowing something that they did not know before, that there is an experience that they have like no other, because they learned something,” he said. “There’s something meaningful that occurred that awakened something in them, a desire to know more. We’re uniquely positioned with a wonderful name that allows us to celebrate, to ignite the fire of celebration of a number of things – family, the holiday season, celebrating education, celebrating sports, celebrating the ideals that this nation provides, that if you’re willing to put in the effort, there is no other country that provides opportunity like the United States of America. And the Celebration Bowl opening up one of the great spectacles of sport – the college bowl season, and the competition surrounding that – the Celebration Bowl can help all of us recognize the valuable role that these young men and women play in exhibiting the best of what this country has to offer, and it’s something worth celebrating.”
Jenny DeLoach Zimmerman is a veteran journalist who lives in Central Florida. This is her first article for UPTOWN Professional magazine.