1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Marva Nichols of The Icon 1901 Collective (Chief Branding & Marketing Officer) - June 20th, 2024

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Marva Nichols of The Icon 1901 Collective (Chief Branding & Marketing Officer) - June 20th, 2024Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the couple Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul. On 937 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Let's do it on a Thursday night, DP, Harrison Orange, man in the board. 402, 464-5 is the start of Hammondex-Texline. If you want to be a part of the conversation, you want to get some comments or questions.

And it's a good night for doing it because we're going to get informed. The room's going to get better looking here in a minute. And I'm proud of it. We're going to bring in, she's fantastic. And I'm ready for y'all to meet her and get used to hearing the voice of Marvin Nichols. Some of what we want to talk about. Again, you can follow us on the stream, Facebook, YouTube X. You can follow us here locally on Allo Channel 961.

One, if you want to be a part of what we're doing, that's how you can put, as Harrison says, put names and faces together. But a part of the conversation tonight is leadership. And in different parts of the country and in different factions of the country, a big part of the conversation is NIL. And I think we miss some of the story by having just NIL conversation. She is the chief marketing and branding officer of the ICOT, 1901. from Grambling State University, Marvin Nichols on the, on the ALO VIP line.

How are you tonight? What's up, VP? I'm well and you? Oh, it's all, see, now it's good. See, now we're good. There we go. We got the queen in here. How you doing? It's good.

Listen, it's good to actually, normally when we're on the group call for the ICA in 1901, Marva has a camera on. She's on live tonight. She's showing out. She's showing out. Marva, I'm like, wait a minute. Okay, Queen.

Come on through. Well done. Give me a camera. I'm going to show up grown, okay? You don't have to worry about it. Listen, I'm here for it. Listen, give the folks a little bit of your history as we go through. First, where's home?

And tell me about this family that is the ones that created Marva. Well, I am a native of Chicago, Illinois. I was born and raised here. And my parents migrated from Mississippi, Kansas, both sides, but at different times in their lives. And they met and they got married in 1955. Ruth and Howard Nichols, my father was a pastor. So I'm a pastor's daughter. I have three sisters and one brother. Out of the five, my second eldest sister, Sherry Nicholswet, she went to Grandin State University. She was the first one to attend in our family. In 1975, she majored in vocal music. And as a little girl, I visited Granary State throughout her tenure. And so we all just kind of gravitated towards Gramming State or HBCUs because of her. And, my uncle, Charles, who went to Moore House first in my mom's generation. And so we all are

Chicagoans that, you know, went to school in the South to HBCUs. And I just have a loving, beautiful family on both sides. Like I said, both sides are from Kansas. So I'm a Mississippi girl, right? Tell it. I'm also a professional singer. I am a gospel recording artist with my sisters. The Nickel Sisters of Chicago, we do have a Christmas album that we produced, I believe, in 2010, perhaps. We have a famous little cousin by the name of Jennifer Hudson. Her grandmother and my grandmother were sisters, and her grandfather and my grandfather were brothers.

And so we're double blood kin. And so after finishing high school here in Chicago at Dunbar, Vocational Career Academy, which is a legacy school, it was one of the first vocational schools created for black folk in the metropolis, the black metropolis. That's what they call Bronzeville in Chicago. All of us attended there. And Jennifer Hudson's grandmother, Julia, Kate Hudson, she was the first to attend in our family. and we all followed after her.

And after completely at Dunbar, I attended Grambling State University, where I eventually became the Miss Granling State University. I believe I'm the 38th Miss Grambling. They're on the 70th first. Don't subtract everybody, but it's been over 31 years. And since my development at Grambling was outstanding. And ever since I, every since I've been a part of Graham,

It's just been a part of my heart and my soul. And then, you know, just throughout my journey, my career, I've always stayed connected to Granling being a fundraiser, a national fundraiser with a soror of mine. We had a national campaign going on back in the 2015s or something like that. And just always stayed involved. And then when NIL came up, Mark Smith, I know you guys, I don't know if you met Mark.

I know he was on first. Mark reached out to me because we attended Grambling together and he said, Marva, I need your help. I'm like, oh, Mark, no. I said, I'll help you, but I don't know about, you know, rolling up my sleeves, but I told a tale and I'm involved in a big way. And so we're here today talking about NIL and Grambling and other HBCUs tonight. Marva, there's so much. And again, when we have guests like Marva, I always say there's zero chance that in this hour I can get in all the details and all the questions to get all the answers that we would want and need an hour. So this is just part one. And we plant the flag there firmly that we'll hear from Marva again because there's so much to know. I want to talk about this because the importance of family and community and involvement. And a lot of it is, having knowledge in the family. There's an assumption that people have knowledge within the family unit that can lead

people in the college experience, that there are people who know how to get through financial struggle of being on your own, making those financial decisions, how to stay out of credit card debt, how not to find yourself wanting or in bad situations. How important was it for you to have people who, you? who you could lean on. And then the second part of it is, is that part of why now you're helping young students figure out their path and to have their experience be better,

whether it be through support, assistance, or otherwise? Absolutely, it's important. Relationships are important. I had my relationships back home, but I developed my own relationships at Grandin State University. I had women on that campus that embraced me. me like Mary Hobdie, who was the chief of staff of the president of the university. I worked in the president's office and she showed me so many things. I sat at her feet about how, what the way

that gambling was, the culture of gambling. I got a bird's eye view. I was immediately put into position of leadership. We talked, you talked about leadership initially as a president's suite hostess. And so I had the opportunity to meet the president's guest. In addition to that, I was privy to serve the founders of the university's daughters, Charles P. Adams' daughters, I mean, Aunt Fai and Mama Toot and anybody else in between, I was able to interact with them and learn the ways and the culture of grandma's University, in addition to that Mildred G. Moss, who was the social secretary of grammar state university. And she ended up being my mother, my surrogate mother, until she passed away. Our relationship

extended beyond me graduating. And so during my tenure, I had people to lead and guide me. And yes, this is the reason why Mark, David, and I have decided to create the icon 1901 Collective so that we can help fellow Graham fam who are students and even other HBCU athletes or students in this space because it is very, very, very delicate space. It's uncharted waters for most people. And you need someone that knows. And you need someone that has expertise in the various areas that we offer. And so, yes, relationships are everything in at Grandin State University.

I received all that I needed and it just took me further than I could ever imagine it would. And now I'm giving back in this space. We're talking to Marvin Nichols of the Icon 1901 and a lot of the NIL conversation often ends up with money and the riches, right? The elite level student athlete. but I think the real movement and the lead that's been buried is that we have the opportunity to help and lead and assist student athletes who are really in need, who are under financial duress and there are numbers that are crazy across the country in the amount of student athletes at universities around the country, especially HBCUs, who came into college at the poverty line. And that these are real, these are real tangentially. issues where you could talk about and say, listen, in some cases, donations being made can help people with the most basic of needs that cannot be handled or distributed by colleges. What are some of the

areas of need that you've heard from from student athletes? Oh, basic needs, like eating. Yeah. Meals, personal products to care for themselves, being able to travel back home, being able to have a cell phone, being able to access, you know, if they're not at the school internet so that they can, you know, actually do their, you know, do their homework or, you know, fulfill their studies and their work assignment. So it's just, it's so just the basic needs. And so we've, we've been, you know, it's been our, our purpose to, enlighten our alumni and others about just the basic needs. And I often say to my partners, you know, even with the brands and the companies and the corporations, even if you take a small,

you know, we know football teams are large, right? But just take a basketball team. And you say the top 10 guys would get $300 a month for 10 months. That's $30,000. That's $30,000. a year, that's peanuts. And most of the teams other than football are small like that. And if you would just offer that to the 10 smaller teams, right, that's $300,000, that you, $300 would be so much to these students. They would feel like they're probably rich. Yeah. I mean, to supplement their, you know, little refund check. And then if they, you know, handle their money wisely, and, you know, ate in the cafeteria and, you know, save their monies and things like that, that $300 would be so helpful to them.

And that's really no money for corporations or even the local businesses in the area to give back to the students that are actually helping their businesses to thrive, right? And so it's just simple math like that. If we would just, I mean, $200 a month. they would be so happy. And, you know, you have the kids reaching out like, hey, listen, I can't pay my cell phone bill. Is it an NIL deal that I can do to try to, you know, they're just looking even for a one-time deal. So just think if we raise enough money and if enough organizations or corporations would invest in this NIL business for our HBCU athletes, what that could do for our athletes.

what that could do for our athletes, first and foremost, because it's about them, their name, image, and likeness, and not the school, but it's about that student athlete. And listen, they work so hard. They work just as hard as any other athlete at any other school on any other level. And they deserve opportunities. They deserve the NIL opportunities just as much as the ones that are in the 1%. So that's just my take on it. Well, I mean, here's the thing, Marva, this through all of this, as we all become more informed,

and then we continue to share information, maybe share resources, maybe it's an opportunity to speak in different vacuums and get into different space because there are people who are going to listen to this over the course of the next week who will find this episode and we'll get information about how they can help. if they can't help the icon 1901 or they can't help Grambling, they may be moved to help their alumni association, and maybe help another HBCU or another university, because this is not just, this is not a Nebraska issue,

this is not an LSU issue, this is not a Howard issue. This is across the country that there are young people in positions of need who make sacrifices, whether be physical, emotional, or otherwise. They take themselves away from home. Mom and dad may not have resources. And then there are people in those community. And you, being misgambling, not only was a wonderful, wonderful thing, a great crown to wear,

but the work that's required to do so, put you in spaces where you were out on the road, you traveled, you met different people in that space, you represented the university, but you also got vision of need. Need and opportunity, right? So what are some of the things that we can say to people who are listening? Hey, not only is this for student athletes, but you know what? I mean, we have the scarletteer in, in, like, Nebraska. We have Ms. Nebraska.

She usually comes on this station to talk about some of the responsibility. but there's a three-tiered thing to being Ms. Grambling. Can you tell us what those three things are and how that wonderful crown that you wore was won and what it was about? Well, first and foremost, the coveted crown of Ms. Grambling is really an honor because we are selected by our peers. And when I won, I won by three folks.

It was a really, really tight race. And I was so grateful and I was humbled that my peers chose me to represent them. And so the first thing about Ms. Graham and State University is representation. You are the official ambassador of the university. You travel with the president and the football team. I was blessed to be able to travel with Coach Eddie G. Robinson and the G. Men on chartered flights to New York and Detroit. When we played in the New York Giants Stadium and the Detroit Lions Stadium, what an honor

it was. And first and foremost, the representation, when we would walk through the airport, people would say, who are these men walking through? And Coach Rob would always tell us, we are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us. And we are not to do anything, but be excellent once we leave this airplane. And so I thank God for being able to experience that with one of the winningest football coaches in college football history. Number two is to represent the student body, to be the voice of the students. And during my tenure, we actually implemented, get out the vote rallies where we fought against David Duke becoming the governor of Louisiana, who was the Grand Wizard of the KKK.

Okay, let me, hold on, let me just applaud. Wow. Oh, yeah. It was a serious matter then. Yeah. And we had celebrities coming through. We had, you know, the voter registration going on. We moved our student body to vote in all of the surrounding areas.

And so being Ms. Gramley State University is just not about crown, smiles, and waves. It is a serious position to hold. And then lastly, you know, a lot of my peers when, you know, even after my reign, they've come to me and say, you will always be my Miss Grahamley because you cared about us. You spoke to us. You listened to us. And you were concerned about us. There are, you know, classmates that will get on Facebook and say, I thank you for when my grandmother died. You pray for me or you said something nice to me. And DP, I don't remember that. I was just genuinely being me and who God created me to be.

And, you know, it's just those simple things like that that people remember when you're in leadership. And so that's the three tiers of Ms. Grama State University and to also recruit. How do you recruit for the university by being the voice and going and reaching out to the community to high schools? Even when I came home to Chicago during the Christmas break, I was at the city of Chicago mayor's office. talking about Bramley State University, the mayor, Mayor Richard J. Daley honored me that particular day in his office and we took pictures. I was in the newspaper and all that. They honored me at City Hall as well, representing Bramley here in Chicago. And we had a huge delegation of Chicago students and we are still going strong,

the Winded City chapter of Granley State University. And so it's all those things and more. And I am forever, Ms. Grambling, no matter how old I did, Grambling is in my heart. And I'm, you know, to be a student leader like these student athletes, these student athletes are leaders and they need our support so that they can go out and do the same things that I did, maybe not on the level that I did. But even in their spirit of influence, it is important for us to support. and really embrace our student athletes because it means the world to them as a student.

And then it develops them and it nurtures them to be great leaders beyond that. It's why I was excited to have this conversation. She is Marvin Nichols of the 1901. Group down at Gramerick State University, the ICON, 1901. We'll throw it a break. When we come back, I do what there's several different spaces to get into. one, the needs. So for a student athlete that is a representative,

one, some of the sacrifices that are made, but two, the needs. What are the things? I mean, I know that in your case, if there had been additional funding for basic needs, we could have done some really good things. We want to remind folks, and then we want to send folks to your website

and let folks know how to follow you and reach you. She is Marvin Nichols. I'm DP. This is one-on-one. You're listening to One-on-One-One with DP, sponsored by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul on 937 the Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome back to one-on-one Thursday night, again, Marvin Nichols.

Oh, my goodness, Chief Marketing, branding officer of the icon 1901, Gambling State University, Miss Grambling State University. And a part of the discussion, as we talked about, is that from your advantage, you got to be a part again road trips and

yeah I don't want to bury the lead I'll save that last question about coach Eddie Robinson for the last segment but to be on the road and know what the needs are specifically how much involvement do you have

with student athletes or the miss gramblings now in discussion of how things are I had questions about whether they got scholarships whether they were funded how does that work? How did it work and how does it work?

Well, I'm not sure that our current queens are as involved as we were politically. And we had a different, you know, back then it was fight the power. You know, you had, you know, hip hop had just come out. You had school days and you had all of these. was a whole, it was a different movement. It was on a whole other level, right? Now, you know, I'm not, I am connected to the younger Ms. Browns, the current Queens, and they have their, you know, set up how they, they work with the university. Not sure if they're involved with athletics other than, you know, supporting the team. They do travel with the team, her and her court,

and they actually represent and they recruit during those trips. However, I'm not sure into how much, you know, they're involved. However, even when I was there, I dated a football player, so I kind of knew into more as well because I dated a guy who played football. And some of those guys today are some of my brothers and I love them to death. The G-Men Nation, Herman RV. and all those guys, they have so many stories of Coach Rob and how they struggled and how they had to walk across the campus to get to the practice field and the mold in the old, you know,

in the old stadium locker room. And I mean, it was just, you know, it was so many needs, but they did more with less. And so we have to be careful not to bring that mentality into today and say, well, they have a facility. They don't have to walk across the campus. You know, this is not then. This is a new day. It is a new day. You know, this is not Coach Eddie Robinson's days in all due respect. It's just a new day.

And it requires a different type of situation. It requires money. It requires proper nutrition. You were saying, what are some of the basic needs? In addition to what I said earlier, the personal needs, but they need fueling stations. You know, they need to be able to. go to the athletic complex if they want a sandwich or, you know, to be able to go in and get whatever they need whenever they want. They need proper, you know, training facilities,

proper equipment, recovery. And I'm not an athlete. I'm just, you know, talking about what I've seen or what I do know about what's needed when you're an athlete so that you can perform your best. You know, I know that they need those tubs to sit in the ice and the, you know, then they need time to relax and just to clear their minds. They need, some need mental health services. A lot of people don't know that our athletes, I've known a couple of, you know, young men who played for gambling who really needed mental health services, although they were, they were making touchdown and they were, you know, intercepting the ball. They were having issues in the midnight hour, whereas I was called to see if I had a referral

for someone that they could speak with. And so people don't understand what those athletes go through. And if they're not successful, how some of them may want to take their lives, or they may be dealing with something back at home like their parent being sick and can't support them in or they have children, you know, they fathered or they've mothered a child and their parent or their girlfriend or a significant other is caring for that child and they're weighing on them emotionally and mentally and they have to focus on the game. And it's just a lot. And so we as fans, we, we as those of us who are alums, those of us who you need to understand that these do not

they're human as well, and they have needs. They need internship and career development opportunities because they're training throughout the year or years. And so when it's time for them to graduate and say they don't get an opportunity at the next level, they have done nothing or they have nothing on their resume to say, I'm ready for the work world. Who is caring for them? Who is providing them the opportunities to get job placement. And this is what the ICON1901 collective, this is what we're working on. We have partners that contact us and say,

hey, look, we need 20 or 30 interns for the summer. Do you have any, you know, we need HBCU students. They come directly to us because we have a database of HBCU students, not only students, but student athletes. And we know that athletes are really great with time management. They're great with leadership. They just need an opportunity to get some hands-on experience. And so I have a couple of guys that didn't make it to the next level. They call me Auntie. I'm like, look, what are you going to do next? And I'm like, I'm not sure. And I'm like, look, I have this, you know, one of my grandma's sister had sisters have a trucking company. And she's like, look, I have opportunities for these. young men if they want to go and get their CDL, it won't be any cost to them.

And I can teach them how to go and start their own trucking business. But you have to have people connected to these young people or they will just become lost and get lost in the wilderness. And that's not what we want for our student athletes that made us cry and jump up and sing the GSU song or any other song, any other fight song. They have needs. And we need to come to their aid as alums, as fans, as corporations, as small businesses. If you would like to donate or be a part of the movement, you can go to www.com, the icon 1901.com,

which is also the HBCU Icon Exchange, which is an NIL marketplace for HBCU athletes. And so we're serious about this. And we've been going at this for two years. We won't give up. We're going to stay in the fight. We're going to stay the course until we can really, really tap into equity for not only HBCU students, but even NAIA students or Division II student athletes because they deserve NIL.

They deserve proper treatment. They deserve to be a part of that pie. Marva, we have put the icon information on the stream so folks can see it and have it there and we will remind folks of how to reach folks. If they want information on the icon, on the icon 1901, if they want information on how to reach out to you, because as we clip this, I know that the response will be that it's not just a grambling state thing. It's not a Nebraska thing.

These athletes all over the country, even at the high school level are going to hear what you just said and say, yep, that's me. Are there parents that this will resonate with? They identify and notice that, wait a minute, that sounds way too familiar for me. So how can they reach you and how can they reach the icon 1901 directly? You can reach me at M Nichols, M-N-I-C-H-O-L-S at the icon 1901.com. or info at the icon 1901.com. And I can tell you this. I had an athlete at Grand Way State University.

And I was a parent until this past spring when she graduated. But my daughter was an icon 1901 athlete. She was on the HBCU Icon Exchange. And she actually went through all of the training during our Influencer University training we had in Atlanta and Dior Nicholson, she landed quite a few deals. She ended up of doing everything that we told her to do because it's a process. You know, you have, with NIL, you have to do something to get the money, right? And so we, we train our student athletes over at the Icon 1901 and the HBCO Icon Exchange, how to position yourself for NIL. Okay, you can't have, you know,

I'm a marketing and branding person. So, yeah. Guess what? You just can't be having, you can't have certain things on your page. You have to clean it up. You have to know what to say, how to say it. We teach you how to shoot certain videos. We teach you, you know, how to create an end-the-life of video to get more followers. The more followers you have, more companies will reach out to you. If you have 2,000 followers, okay, you know, you may be the star athlete. but you need to get your followers up, right? So because my daughter, when she hit 10,000, cosmetic company started coming her way. She got hair deals, the wigs. She would get wigs in the mail where she would pay $200.

And oh, no kidding. She's like, mom, this is great. She had her own Amazon store. She got an Adidas deal. She got a cash app deal. She was getting deal after deal after deal. And, you know, some were $250, some were $1.75. but guess what? That came in handy.

But she had to position herself to be a good candidate for NIL. There are not a lot of, you know, everybody wants to be should doer, but he's on a whole other level. Everybody's going after him. You have to make yourself, you know, marketable for these deals. So even with us on our platform, if, just say, for instance, if a company comes to us and say, okay, we need 30 athletes, We need, between out of the 30, we need at least a million followers.

We have to go and find the athletes that have the most followers, right? So that that company can actually get the reach that they want for their money. So that's another thing that we do. We have a leg of our business called the Influencer University, whereas we teach our student athletes how to be influencers because that's very important. And guess what? They're influencers already. because they drive the culture.

Music, clothing, saints, hashtags, they're it. And so they should be capitalizing off of who they are already. And so it's just, it's so much to be, you know, tapped into.

But if you want to connect with us, if you want to become a part of our movement, if you want to become a part of our movement, If you want to become a part of helping Gramer State University and or other HBCUs, we are the organization that you need to contact. And again, you can contact me directly at M. Nichols at theicon1901.com. And again, our website is www. Theicon1901.com.

We are talking to Marvin Nichols of the icon 1901. We'll go to break from and come back. A couple of things. just small details about, I need to hear about Coach Eddie Robinson for a bit. And then I need to hear about your current leader down there at Grambling State University. The one and only Mickey Joseph. We'll talk about that with Marvin Nichols. I'm DP.

This is one-on-one. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 93-7 The Ticket and The Ticketfm.com. Final segment of one-on-one, it has been informative and attaining. And we say, we often say that we are either informing or performing. but when you have somebody you have a grand queen on who can educate you and she can probably sing us through it if we really needed her through marvin nichols from the icon 1901 breaking down so in your time as miss grambling you spoke about being able to travel travel with the legendary eddie robinson coach with eddie robinson and is there a thing about coach robinson that

stands out to you wow so many things um not only did I travel with coach. I traveled with his wife, Doris. And Mrs. Robinson would always have me a snickers. She was like, here's my girl, here's your snickers. And she was just the sweetest woman. She was always by his side. And they were just the greatest couple, an example of, you know, what marriage was, what staying together and being, this power couple but one thing that stands out about coach rob about me for me is that he loved grandma and i think that his love for grandma and just it just spread amongst us it just it was it was a spirit that just poured on all of us and he he he would tell us you know we have to show people who we are and where we are where we where we where we come from because nobody knows about Grambling, Louisiana,

but we're well-renowned because of Eddie G. Robinson and Grambling football. Isn't that something? A little small town in Grambling, northeast Louisiana. And he was such a giant of a man. And I have the opportunity to work in the athletic complex as well during my tenure towards the end. After I was Ms. Grandma, I worked there for coach. Wilworth Ellis, who is a living legend. He's the last of the three of Robinson, Hobdee and Ellis. But anyway, I would just watch him walk down. It was nothing for us to see him. He would talk to you.

And he was just down to earth. You wouldn't know that he was this iconic man. And that's what stood out. He was humbled. He was great. He was a family man. He loved his players. He loved his school. He loved his family. He loved everybody. And the world loved him back. And so we're just blessed to have been able to walk with him, travel with him, to know him, to say, I have pictures with him. So I'm just elated that I was able to sit at the feet of Eddie Robinson and other trailblazers at Graham.

Marva, here's the thing. being a kid of that era, living in Arlington, Virginia, at the time, you know, three or four channels were all we had. But every Sunday morning, my family would get together. We would gather around the TV. It was one of the few things that would gather us all around the TV. And there were two football programs in the country that were highlighted on Sunday before the NFL came on. One of those was Notre Dame, and they did a full replay of their game. The other was Grambling State University.

And I can tell you that an entire nation of kids, I was a grambling fan for as long. I go back to James Harris. I go back to know that across the country on Sunday morning, gambling was a feature in many homes, especially in black areas across the country. But in Washington, D.C., gambling had a network. They had a group of fans who gave. gathered every Sunday to follow the tiger. So that's the reach.

And that's as, what's the, what's the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the just restoring the order. Restoring the order. And I'm just letting you know that this is important nationally. I don't, I don't, I don't think Grambling always remembers its real place at the top of the pyramid, that is. And the icon is right. Grambling State University is the icon.

time because for young DP it was the thing that looked like me on the highest stage in the greatest way and that's why helping get these stories out and these news out to help the future of Grambling State athletics grow is important to me that's why it matters so there's that and then you make a move grambling state university makes a move and it goes from Hugh Jackson to somebody that you knew and we're close to to Mickey Joseph. Let's talk first about Coach Jackson and who he was and what he did at Graham. Coach Hugh Jackson is a phenomenal human being first and foremost. Let me say that. And I thank God that he sent him our way. We really needed him at the time that my brother,

coach Broderick-Fobbs, was, you know, when he resigned. And, you know, after winning the national championship and all that. And then, you know, being in the position we were in, Hugh Jackson was great for us because Jackson State had Dion Sanders. And so we kind of needed, because we're grandma. We needed an executive type of coach who, you know, he's from the NFL and all that. And so Hugh came in right away and was trying to make changes. And he was. He was doing great and bringing in resources and, you know, and doing what he could to recruit better. you know, players. And, you know, his first class were, it was a young class. And we know that the transfer portal, a lot of schools were getting the adult men, right? The transfer. So those 18, 19-year-olds

were facing 22, 23-year-old men. And that's a difference. You know, that's a big difference in psyche and physicality, right? But the second year, we saw improvements, but it wasn't just, it wasn't fast enough for the Bramlin fans because we were used to winning. That's just who we are. And we just didn't want to wait. And so to work with Hugh Jackson on the Hewad podcast on MTV Sports Network, it was a wonderful privilege. He and I became really good friends. I love Coach Hugh Jackson. We have a mutual respect for one another. And I told him forever be my brother. And I appreciated everything he had done. And now we have Coach Mickey Joseph on hand. And I look forward to really getting to know him and helping him to make

Grambling football even better and restore the order. And so everybody knows that Grambling State football is my favorite team in the whole world. It doesn't matter what sport. I don't care. Grambling, G-Men, that's my favorite team. And so when I spoke with Coach Mickey about that, He says, well, I'm supposed to be your favorite coach, right? I'm getting to know his personality, right? I'm like, well, I said that remains to be seen, right? You got to prove yourself, sir, over here. You don't come on the scene, demand and being my favorite coach.

But whoever's the leader, I'm always in support of them. I don't care. I love gambling football. I love Graham State University. And that's where my heart is. and that's where my support will always be. And so now he's the leader. I will support him as well.

Marva, it is exceptional to introduce you to the Ticket FM family. We will do this again, if not next week, the week after. But I will see you soon so that we can get to work and get things moving down. That is Marvin Nichols. Marva, thank you for who you are and what you're doing. We will talk again soon. Thank you, D. I'm DEP. I love you.

All right. That is Marvin Nichols. I'm D.P. That'll be it for one-on-one tonight. More ticket weeknights coming up on 93-7, The Ticket, and the Ticketfm.com.