First Annual Ben L. Cavil Sr. "Big Ben"HBCU Football Awards
The Ben L. Cavil, Sr. “Big Ben” Award Banquet announced in 2015 by 3C Communications of The Heritage Group Sport Business Academy, (THGSBA) Inc., recognizes a football player attending an Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the State of Texas or was born or played high school football in the state of Texas and/or played at a Texas-based junior college and continued their career playing for an HBCU. And who also exhibits the enduring characteristics that define Ben L. Cavil, Sr.: determination, diligence, integrity, performance, familial, teamwork, fraternal, and community engagement. The inaugural event was held on Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at the Crowne Plaza-NRG Hotel in Houston.
The Ben L. Cavil, Sr. “Big Ben” Award, a THGSBA program, was established to recognize and reconstruct the historical resistance of HBCUs by analyzing the cultural climate of HBCU athletic programs by highlighting the sports career of Ben L. Cavil Sr. Ben was an HBCU football All-American, playing for Wiley College in the mid-20’s. During the first decade of the SWAC creation in 1920, from 1925 to 1929, Big Ben distinguished himself collegially, academically and fraternally as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity (Pledgee, 1925, Initiated, 1926), while compiling championship stories, records and national honors as an HBCU gridiron legend. As a fullback and a member of the ‘Wild Cat Eleven,’ he excelled outside of the Eurocentric framing of the American football collegiate context.
