TSU vs. PV: Here's a true grudge match game

Opener sets tone for season for both teams
By LARRY YOUNG Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 26, 2009, 11:35PM

Akin to all other families that feud, Texas Southern and Prairie View are no different. Separated by only 50 miles, the two have met every season since 1947.

The last three seasons, they have met in the first game of the year at Reliant Stadium. A year ago, Prairie View thrashed TSU 34-14 before a crowd of 20,000 — in just the sort of game second-year TSU coach Johnnie Cole recalls his Tigers having against the Panthers when he quarterbacked the team in the 1980s.

Back then, TSU ran up and down the field, often turning the game into a track meet — one that Prairie View was not equipped to participate in. Cole's Tigers beat the Panthers every year Cole played.

“When I played here, we pretty much went into the game knowing we were going to win,” Cole said. “We only wondered by how much.”

Long dry spell
Of course, everyone was beating Prairie View from most of the last three decades. The Panthers endured a downward spiral that eventually led them to a record 80 consecutive losses between 1989 and 1998.

But a lot has changed since then. In recent years, Prairie View coach Henry Frazier III has dominated the series. In five seasons, Frazier is 4-1 against TSU. His only loss (17-14) came in 2006.

“It's been a good rivalry over the years, and it was a good game last year, but it's a game we want to win,” Cole said. “I'm trying to instill in our kids that we don't lose to Prairie View. We don't lose to the school up north.

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