The Orange Blossom Classic was an annual postseason college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 game held between 1933 and 1978. Each year, it featured Florida A&M and another historically black school

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....

 in an unofficial de facto championship game.Super Bowl Catches Up to Orange Blossom Classic, The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, February 3, 2007, retrieved February 7, 2009. It was seen as a mythical

Mythical National Championship

A mythical national championship is a colloquial term used to question the validity of national championship recognition that is not explicitly competitive...

 "Black National Championship" game. For example, the December 5, 1942 "Afro American" newspaper refers to the 1942 game as a national title game, as does at least one source for the 1945 game (see: http://media-newswire.com/release_1143144.html).

Presently, an occasional regular season game between Florida A&M and Florida International

FIU Golden Panthers football

The FIU Golden Panthers football team represent Florida International University in Miami, Florida in the sport of college football. The FIU Panthers are a mid-major NCAA FBS college football team in the Sun Belt Conference led by Mario Cristobal and play at the on-campus FIU Stadium.-History:On...

 is called the Orange Blossom Classic.Dave Marks, "Florida A&M band highlights annual Orange Blossom Classic", Miami Times, November 23, 2004. Florida International, however, is not a historically black college. These two teams last played in 2005 and are not scheduled to meet again in the near future.

Game results

Year	Site	Winning team		Losing team
1933	Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...	Florida A&M	9	Howard Howard University Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...	0
1934	Miami, Florida Miami, Florida Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...	Florida A&M	13	Virginia State Virginia State University Virginia State University is a historically black and land-grant university located north of the Appomattox River in Chesterfield, in the Richmond area. Founded on , Virginia State was the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for black Americans...	12
1935	Jacksonville, Florida	Kentucky State Kentucky State University Kentucky State University is a four-year institution of higher learning, located in Frankfort, Kentucky, United States, the Commonwealth's capital. The school is an historically black university, which desegregated in 1954...	19	Florida A&M	10
1936	Jacksonville, Florida	Prairie View Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University is a historically black university located in Prairie View, Texas and is a member of the Texas A&M University System. PVAMU offers baccalaureate degrees in 50 academic majors, 37 master’s degrees and four doctoral degree programs through nine colleges and schools...	25	Florida A&M	0
1937	Jacksonville, Florida	Florida A&M	25	Hampton Hampton University Hampton University is a historically black university located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It was founded by black and white leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen.-History:...	20
1938	Jacksonville, Florida	Florida A&M	9	Kentucky State	7
1939	Jacksonville, Florida	Florida A&M	42	Wiley Wiley College Wiley College is a four-year, private, historically black, liberal arts college located on the west side of Marshall, Texas. Founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and certified in 1882 by the Freedman's Aid Society, it is notable as one of the oldest predominantly...	0
1940	Jacksonville, Florida	Central State Central State University Central State University, commonly referred to as "C-State", is a historically black university located in Wilberforce, Ohio, United States. It is the only public HBCU in Ohio.-History:...	0	Florida A&M	0
1941	Jacksonville, Florida	Florida A&M	15	Tuskegee Tuskegee University Tuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...	7
1942	Jacksonville, Florida	Florida A&M	12	Texas College Texas College Texas College is a historically black four-year college located in Tyler, Texas that is affiliated with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the United Negro College Fund...	6
1943	Jacksonville, Florida	Hampton	39	Florida A&M	0
1944	Jacksonville, Florida	Virginia State	19	Florida A&M	6
1945	Jacksonville, Florida	Wiley	32	Florida A&M	6
1946	Tampa, Florida Tampa, Florida Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....	Lincoln	20	Florida A&M	0
1947	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	7	Hampton	0
1948	Miami, Florida	Virginia Union Virginia Union University Virginia Union University is a historically black university located in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It took its present name in 1899 upon the merger of two older schools, Richmond Theological Institute and Wayland Seminary, each founded after the end of American Civil War by the American...	10	Florida A&M	6
1949	Miami, Florida	North Carolina A&T	20	Florida A&M	14
1950	Miami, Florida	Central State	13	Florida A&M	6
1951	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	67	North Carolina Central North Carolina Central University North Carolina Central University is a public historically black university in the University of North Carolina system, located in Durham, North Carolina, offering programs at the baccalaureate, master’s, professional and doctoral levels....	6
1952	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	29	Virginia State	7
1953	Miami, Florida	Prairie View	33	Florida A&M	27
1954	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	67	Maryland State University of Maryland Eastern Shore University of Maryland Eastern Shore located on 776 acres in Princess Anne, Maryland, United States, is part of the University System of Maryland...	19
1955	Miami, Florida	Grambling	28	Florida A&M	21
1956	Miami, Florida	Tennessee State Tennessee State University Tennessee State University is a land-grant university located in Nashville, Tennessee. TSU is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee.-History:...	41	Florida A&M	39
1957	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	27	Maryland State	21
1958	Miami, Florida	Prairie View	26	Florida A&M	8
1959	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	28	Prairie View	7
1960	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	40	Langston Langston University Langston University is an institution of higher learning located in Langston, Oklahoma, USA. It is the only historically black college in the state, and the westernmost historically black college in the United States...	26
1961	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	14	Jackson State Jackson State University Jackson State University is a historically black university founded in 1877 in Natchez, MS by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York. The Society moved the school to Jackson in 1882, renaming it Jackson College, and developed its present campus in 1902. It became a state supported...	8
1962	Miami, Florida	Jackson State	22	Florida A&M	6
1963	Miami, Florida	Morgan State	30	Florida A&M	7
1964	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	42	Grambling	15
1965	Miami, Florida	Morgan State	36	Florida A&M	7
1966	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	43	Alabama A&M	26
1967	Miami, Florida	Grambling	28	Florida A&M	25
1968	Miami, Florida	Alcorn State	36	Florida A&M	9
1969	Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 128th largest city in the United States. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2010, the population recorded by...	Florida A&M	23	Grambling	19
1970	Miami, Florida	Jacksonville State	21	Florida A&M	7
1971	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	27	Kentucky State Kentucky State University Kentucky State University is a four-year institution of higher learning, located in Frankfort, Kentucky, United States, the Commonwealth's capital. The school is an historically black university, which desegregated in 1954...	9
1972	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	41	Maryland-Eastern ShoreThe University of Maryland Eastern Shore was known as Maryland State College until 1970.	21
1973	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	23	South Carolina State	12
1974	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	17	Howard	13
1975	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	40	Kentucky State	13
1976	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	26	Central State	21
1977	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	37	Delaware State Delaware State Hornets football The Delaware State University Hornets football team plays at 7,193-seat Alumni Stadium located in Dover, Delaware. The facility opened in 1957 as a multi-purpose for football, and track and field. The Hornets compete in Division I FCS, and are full-members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference...	15
1978	Miami, Florida	Florida A&M	31	Grambling	7

Appearances by school

No.	School	Record
46	Florida A&M	26–19–1
5	Grambling	2–1
4	Kentucky State	1–3
4	Prairie View	3–1
3	Central State	1–1–1
3	Hampton	1–2
3	Maryland-Eastern Shore	0–3
3	Virginia State	1–2
2	Howard	0–2
2	Jackson State	1–1
2	Morgan State	2–0
2	Wiley	1–1
1	Alabama A&M	0–1
1	Alcorn State	1–0
1	Langston	0–1
1	North Carolina A&T	1–0
1	North Carolina Central	0–1
1	South Carolina State	0–1
1	Tennessee State	1–0
1	Texas College	0–1
1	Virginia Union	1–0

Source: