The Alabama State, NC Central fans who attended enjoyed Orange Blossom Classic festivities

The bus ride from Montgomery, Alabama, to Miami took almost 13 hours.

LaShawn Long enjoyed the journey. So did the other 46 Alabama State University fans on board.

“We travel to all the games, and we always have a lot of fun on the bus,” Long said. “We listen to music and talk about our different experiences at Alabama State and what we’re doing now.”

Alabama State faced off against North Carolina Central University in the Orange Blossom Classic on Sunday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium — a battle between two of the nation’s top HBCU football programs.

Alabama State made its first appearance, North Carolina Central its second.

“We were really excited to come,” Amber Lyons said.

“We immediately booked reservations,” said Latasha Gerald, Lyons’ traveling companion and fellow North Carolina Central graduate.

The 2024 edition of the Orange Blossom Classic had a different feel.

For the first time in the Classic’s history — the game was played annually from 1933 to 1978 and resumed in 2021 — Florida A&M was not one of the teams playing Sunday.

The ASU and NCCU fans who attended were passionate about the event and seeing their teams play, though there was only a smattering of fans in the stands when the game kicked off mid-afternoon under a light drizzle.

In the hours before the game, it rained hard, dampening the Fan Fest outside the stadium that was scheduled to have rapper 2Chainz, an Alabama State alum, perform.

The crowd of ASU fans clad in black and gold and NCCU fans in maroon and gray was boisterous, but it was a stark contrast to the atmosphere during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, when about 36,000 and 40,000 fans, respectively, attended. Those teams featured Deion Sanders as Jackson State’s coach. With Sanders having moved on to coach the University of Colorado, last year’s Orange Blossom Classic drew about 24,000 fans.

The official attendance of Sunday’s game was 10,256.

“The Orange Blossom Classic ain’t going nowhere,” said Sonji Woods, the aunt of Alabama State defensive lineman Stefon Young-Rolle, one of three Miami Central High players on the roster. “The only thing that’s going to change is the teams.”

OBC executive director Kendra Bullock-Major told the Miami Herald in late January, “We feel really good that these teams will draw well.”

Those who did attend Sunday were happy they did.

“This is really my first big [road game],” said Cydney Anderson, a sophomore at North Carolina Central who decided to make her first trip to Miami a one-week vacation with her uncle. “I wanted to experience Hard Rock Stadium and the Orange Blossom Classic, just see what it’s about. I would like to see our team come more often.”

Colby Portee, a lifelong FAMU fan and Alabama State grad who now lives in Miami, said the exposure from playing in the nationally televised Classic will be “good for the school and get us some more recognition — maybe even get more students to go to Alabama from South Florida.”

North Carolina Central grads Bobby Cooke and Donnie Susong said they made sure to attend Saturday’s Battle of the Bands at University of Miami’s Watsco Center.

“It was fantastic,” Susong said.

“The high school bands were really good, too,” Cooke said. “We enjoyed that.”

Alabama State grad Ebony Evans, who traveled here with a group of friends, took a selfie with Orange Bowl mascot Obie. She said she hopes ASU will return soon and the Orange Blossom Classic has a long future ahead.

“We’ve been traveling throughout Miami and wearing our gear everywhere we go,” Evans said. “A lot of people have been asking, ‘What are you here for? You came all the way from Montgomery? Yeah, we did. It’s an awesome event.”