Before the Belt: The Rivalry Across the Years
Editor’s note: this article was published in the leadup to the 2020 Battle for the Belt, a series called Five Stories in Five Days. The first installment looked at the rivalry from the first South Alabama baseball season to the introduction of the Belt.
October 3, 2015. South Alabama players hoist a brand-new wrestling belt trophy, moments after beating Troy for the second time in its program’s short history. To the college football world, a rivalry was born.
For the two schools the rivalry was beginning a new chapter, 50 years after it began.
The Beginning
1965. Troy State College baseball coach Mel Lucas, after leading the team to three conference titles in four years, is introduced as the first athletic director at the young University of South Alabama in Mobile. He also assumes head coaching duties for the first three years.
Presumably, the buyout included the Jaguars’ first scheduled opponent. Troy hosted the brand new baseball club on April 17, 1965, and twice the following year.
Troy’s 2007 media guide is the only source for the calendar date, but guides after that put the date in 1966. It’s worth noting that a lot of Trojan baseball before Chase Riddle is lost to time. If you know anything at all about Troy baseball in the 1960s please get in touch.
South Alabama’s guides corroborate the first three games, but give no dates.
The Trojans moved into the NCAA’s Division II and helped form the Mid-South Conference, now the Gulf South Conference in 1970. South Alabama stayed independent until it became a charter member of the Sun Belt.
In between those years the Trojans and the Jaguars met up for two more matchups in 1974 and 1976. It didn’t go well for Troy State University.
South averaged 11 runs in its six wins. Troy State averaged just two.
It must have really had an impact on the Trojans. The two schools went radio silent for 17 years.
Revival on the Court
Troy State continued its upward movement into Division I by 1993. The Trojans once again dialed up the Jaguars, kicking off the baseball series that continues to this day.
The team’s first matchup wasn’t on the diamond though. South Alabama hosted Troy State on the hardwood in December 1993.
The Trojans won a game in Mobile for the first time in nearly 30 years, and won its next game against South nine days later.
Then South went back to winning, wrapping up 1995 with its second win over the Troy State basketball team.
Earlier that year, both teams made the NCAA Regional in Tallahassee. Florida State, Ole Miss and UCF knocked the Trojans and the Jags out by the second round. South would return to the Regionals every year until 2003, and again in 2005.
For the next decade, South and Troy only met on the diamond.
That period brought a lot of change for Troy State. The Trojans moved to Division I-A in 2001, dropped the “State” in 2004 and fully joined the Sun Belt in 2005 (football was a member in 2004.)
Battle in the Belt
By this point, the Trojans and the Jaguars were forever linked. In-state conference foes, Troy and South made biannual trips to each other.
Interestingly, the baseball teams met in Dothan in 2006. It’s so far the only neutral site matchup that isn’t a conference tournament.
At this point, South and Troy dominated the conference between the big three sports. Both schools made appearances in the NCAA Regional, South went to the Basketball Tournament twice, and Troy picked up its first three of five straight conference titles.
Then, on December 6, 2007, the Jaguars changed everything.
South Alabama’s first football game was September 5, 2009. Over the next three years, the Jags went 23-4 before joining the Sun Belt as a full-time football member. In that time, Troy made up ground in the overall series.
From the day Troy dropped State from its name to the first football game between the two schools, the three-sport series record was 24-24.
In the first gridiron matchup, Troy blew South Alabama out on a rainy day in Mobile, but even before the game Coach Larry Blakeney knew this was one to watch.
Across the entire department, the rivalry heated up. From 2013-2018, every basketball game was decided by ten points or fewer. From 2012 to 2015, Troy and South split the baseball series.
In 2013, Troy made South Alabama its football homecoming game and won on a last-second touchdown. The 2014 football game was Troy’s first loss in the series, and just its second loss in Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The momentum in this series got to a boiling point. That’s when the two schools made it official.
October 3, 2015. South Alabama players hoist a brand-new wrestling belt trophy, moments after beating Troy for the second time in its program’s short history. To the college football world, a rivalry was born.
To the schools, students, alums and fans, it was the start of a new chapter.
Be sure to check out our other #SouthHateWeek stories!
Battle for the Belt 101
Mel Lucas: The First Link
The Battle for the Belt Uniform History
Troy Football in Mobile
Reuniting Champions