The 1975 Grambling Tigers football team represented Grambling State University as a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) during the 1975 NCAA Division II football season. In its 33rd season under head coach Eddie Robinson, Grambling compiled a 10–2 record (4–2 against conference opponents), initially tied for the SWAC championship, and outscored opponents by a total of 324 to 153 on the field. The team was recognized as the 1975 black college football national co-champion and was ranked No. 4 by the Associated Press and No. 2 by the United Press International in the final 1975 NCAA College Division football rankings.^[1]

Key players included sophomore quarterback Doug Williams, receivers Dwight Scales, Carlos Pennywell, and Sammie White, and running backs Fallon Bush and Cliff Martin.^[2] Williams later played nine seasons in the National Football League. Dwight Scales went on to play eight seasons in the National Football League .

Grambling inadvertently double-scheduled games on October 4 against Prairie View A&M and Oregon State and opted to play Oregon State, leaving Prairie View idle. Grambling told Prairie View of the scheduling problem in the spring and tried to reschedule the game with Prairie View for November 22, but the negotiations fell through. On November 26, the Southwestern Athletic Conference assessed a loss against Grambling's conference record, declaring the October 4 game against Prairie View to be a forfeit.^[3] On December 12, the SWAC commissioner stripped Grambling of its share of the conference co-championship, and then almost to add insult to injury, the athletic directors voted unanimously to send Southern as the SWAC's representative to the Pelican Bowl (over the other remaining co-champ, Jackson State);^[4] Grambling had just defeated Southern soundly only two weeks before in the first Bayou Classic to be played in the new Louisiana Superdome,^[5] and now the Jaguars could participate in a bowl game being billed as the black national championship.^[6][7] Grambling-produced publications intended for the mass media make no reference to their brief hold on the 1975 co-championship.^[8][9]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 6	vs. Alcorn State		Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA	W 27–3	61,000	[10]
September 13	vs. Morgan State*		Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Washington, DC	W 40–7	29,112	[11]
September 20	at Hawaii*	NR/1	Aloha Stadium Halawa, HI	W 20–6	29,472	[12]
October 4	at Oregon State*	No. 1/1	Civic Stadium Portland, OR	W 19–12	16,964	[13]
October 4	vs. Prairie View A&M		Cotton Bowl Dallas, TX (rivalry)	L 0–0		[3]
October 11	at Tennessee State*	No. 1/1	Hale Stadium Nashville, TN	W 28–25	17,000	[14]
October 18	Mississippi Valley State	No. 1/1	Grambling Stadium Grambling, LA	W 38–22	20,118	[15]
October 25	at Jackson State	No. 1/1	Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium Jackson, MS	L 14–24	25,700–30,000	[16][17]
November 1	at Texas Southern	No. 5/5	Astrodome Houston, TX	W 37–21	46,183	[18]
November 8	North Carolina A&T*	No. 4/3	Grambling Stadium Grambling, LA	W 42–16	12,707	[19]
November 15	vs. Norfolk State*	No. 4/3	Shea Stadium Flushing, NY	W 26–0	33,869	[20]
November 29	vs. Southern	No. 3/2	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA (Bayou Classic)	W 33–17	73,214	[5]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP/UPI Poll released prior to the game

^[21]

References