PRAIRIE VIEW-  The year before his death in 1964, soul sensation Sam Cooke was moved to write the hit song, “A Change Is Gonna Come.”  In times past, the lyrics championed the civil rights movement and most recently was a staple in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Prairie View A&M Panther Coach Henry Frazier III echoed a variation of that song when he stated “It’s been a long time coming.”  Frazier was speaking about the 30-24 victory over Alabama A&M which gave the Historically Black University,  the 2009 SWAC (The Southwestern Athletic Conference) Championship crown on Dec. 12.
Ironically, the year that Cooke’s song was released by the RCA Victor label, was the last time the Panthers  won the championship—a fact not lost on the history-making coach. “Nobody on this staff, nobody on this team was born in 1964. This is a special time.”
It is a special time indeed for the university which recently celebrated its 133th anniversary. Considered to be one of the oldest and most prominent institutions of higher learning in Texas,  it came into being as Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College on March 11, 1878.
But although PVAM is noted for producing engineers, nurses and educators, its football program was rather lackluster. In fact it had become the butt of many jokes among opposing teams.
So much so, ESPN.com once named it the number 1 worst  college football team of all time. But that was based on its record after 1964.
Between 1953 and that fateful year, the feared Panthers won five national Black college titles. But if there was a Guiness Book of World Records for losses, PVAM would have earned it in the 1990s, when the school lost 80 straight games.
In 1991 the team averaged less than a touchdown per game while  allowing their opponents to score an average of 56 points per game. A lesser man would have questioned his own sanity when faced with those stats, but not Frazier who took the helm of the sinking football program six Christmases ago in 2003.
He wasn’t afraid of the carcasses left behind by previous coaches, but rather as he explains it, he saw an opportunity of a life-time. So admid the whispers and questioning of well-meaning friends and associates, he left the head coach position at his alma mater Bowie State, (Maryland), to take the job at PVAMU.
He had played quarterback for Bowie in 1993 and after coaching at Central High School in Capitol Heights, Md., he was hired as head coach at Bowie in 1999.
But lest the uninitiated think that the winning program (35-26 regular season) was a fluke, the first year as coach of the Bulldogs he took them to 5-4 and finished two years later at 7-3. In 2002,  the Bulldogs would go win their first Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Eastern Division title and appear in the championship game. The following year they closed the season at 6-4.
In 2007, talk of a Panther Championship began when the team reached 7-3, the program’s first winning season in three decades. In 2008, the team finished 9-1 and second in the SWAC Western Division standings in 2008.
Prairie View topped that by winning their first Western Division title with a 7-0 record in the SWAC this season. Buoyed by the confidence of the team’s coach, even reaching Birmingham wasn’t enough to satisfy the thirst for the ultimate victory. Frazier said at practice, “I want our players to enjoy the atmosphere and cherish the opportunity to be here but at the end of the day, this is a business trip,” Our goal is to come home with the SWAC Championship.”
And led by quarterback K.J. Black and defensive end Quinton Spears who were named offensive and defensive MVPs of the title game, the Panthers took care of business in a almost four-hour battle that saw seven lead changes before the final gun sounded.
Alabama A&M (7-5) clung to a 4-point lead (21-17) in the fourth quarter before a 23-yard touchdown pass from Black to Gabe Osaze-Ediae put the Panthers (9-1) ahead 23-17 with plenty of time on the clock. However, Prairie View’s Anthony Peck caused Alabama A&M quarterback Deaunte Mason to fumble and Spears made his second fumble recovery of the game. 
Following this final momentum changer, Black then threw a 22-yard pass to Anthony Weeden for a 30-21 lead. The Bulldogs added a late field goal—enough to keep the outcome in suspense, but history was already written.



PVAMU Coach Henry Frazier hoists the 2009 SWAC Championship trophy after the Panthers victory over Alabama A&M. “It’s been a long time coming,’ said Frazier  who took over the reigns of the team in 2003.



Defensive end Quinton Spears and quarterback K.J. Black were named defensive and offensive MVPs of the championship game.