# Alabama State Hornets football

The Alabama State Hornets are the college football team representing the Alabama State University. The Hornets play in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
Hornet Stadium serves as the facility for Alabama State football games and practices. The 120-yard field turf playing field provides training to ASU football in all weather conditions. In June 2011, construction on the Houston Markham Football Complex was completed. The two-story, 30,000-square-foot facility serves as the new home of the football program.

## Conference affiliations

* Independent (1901–1912)
* Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (1913–1975)
* Division II Independent (1976–1981)
* Southwestern Athletic Conference (1982–present)

## Championships
### National

Alabama State has won one national championship.
| Year | Coach | Championship | Record |
| 1991 | Houston Markham | Black College National Champions | 11–0–1 |

### Conference

Alabama State has won six conference championships.
| Year | Coach | Conference | Record |
| 1935 | Rufus Lewis | Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | 9–2–1 |
| 1936 | Rufus Lewis | Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | 6–2–2 |
| 1965 | Whitney L. Van Cleve | Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Section B | 6–4–0 |
| 1966 | Whitney L. Van Cleve | Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Section B | 8–2–0 |
| 1991 | Houston Markham | Southwestern Athletic Conference | 11–0–1 |
| 2004 | Charles Coe | Southwestern Athletic Conference | 10–2 |
| Total Conference Championships: | Total Conference Championships: | Total Conference Championships: | 6 | 6 |

## Rivalries

The Magic City Classic is the highest attended and most anticipated regular season ASU football game every year. The Hornets take on in-state rival Alabama A&M Bulldogs in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Turkey Day Classic is an annual event played yearly on Thanksgiving between ASU and another opponent, most recently Prairie View A&M in 2019 and has been played almost consecutively since 1924, except for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

## Alumni in the NFL

Over 20 Alabama State alumni have played in the NFL, including:
* Reggie Barlow
* Keenan Issac
* Brad Baxter
* Earl Cochran
* Michael Coe
* Isaiah Crowell
* Tytus Howard
* Johnny Huggins
* Tarvaris Jackson
* Greg Jenkins
* Bill Johnson
* Terren Jones
* Zefross Moss
* Eddie Robinson
* Tyrone Rogers
* Ricky Smith
* Jylan Ware

## Head coaches

| Name | Seasons | Record | Win Pct. |
| Theodore Bradford | 1902–1904 | 0–2 | 0.000 |
| J.A. Welton | 1905–1908 | 4–5–1 | 0.444 |
| John Hope | 1909–1916 | 17–6–1 | 0.739 |
| "Professor Kilpatrick" | 1917–1920 | 1–3–1 | 0.250 |
| Ralph Harris | 1921–1925 | 21–13–3 | 0.618 |
| Bertrand C. Jacobs | 1926–1928 | 16–10–3 | 0.615 |
| Gaston F. Lewis | 1929–1933 | 31–13–4 | 0.705 |
| Rufus Lewis | 1934–1942 | 42–32–9 | 0.568 |
| John Brown | 1943, 1945–1948 | 10–24–1 | 0.249 |
| Georgie Lockhart & E.B. Campbell | 1944 | 0–7 | 0.000 |
| James H. Dixon | 1949–1951 | 5–20–3 | 0.179 |
| A.E. Simmons | 1952–1961 | 43–40–3 | 0.500 |
| C.E. Anderson | 1962 | 0–8 | 0.000 |
| Marino Casem | 1963 | 2–8 | 0.200 |
| Whitney Van Cleve | 1964–1968 | 35–14–1 | 0.700 |
| Henry Holbert | 1969–1972 | 21–21 | 0.500 |
| Willie J. Parker | 1973–1976, 1984, 1986 | 16–38 | 0.296 |
| George James | 1976–1983 | 43–39–2 | 0.524 |
| Ron Mitchell (interim) | 1985 | 3–8 | 0.273 |
| Houston Markham | 1987–1997 | 65–50–4 | 0.546 |
| Ron Dickerson | 1998–1999 | 7–15 | 0.318 |
| L.C. Cole | 2000–2002 | 20–15 | 0.571 |
| Charles Coe III | 2003–2006 | 29–18 | 0.617 |
| Reggie Barlow | 2006–2014 | 49–42 | 0.538 |
| Brian Jenkins | 2015–2017 | 10–17 | 0.370 |
| Donald Hill-Eley | 2017–2021 | 20–21 | 0.488 |
| Travis Pearson (interim) | 2021 | 2–2 | 0.500 |
| Eddie Robinson | 2022– | 13–9 | 0.591 |

## Future non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of March 7, 2025
| 2025 | 2026 | 2027 |
| at UAB | at Troy | vs South Carolina State (Atlanta, GA) MEAC/SWAC Challenge |
| at Southern | at South Carolina State | |
| Miles College | | |
| Tuskegee | | |