It’s Wednesday afternoon at The Birmingham Botanical Gardens when Norris Wood walks inside. He’s got on a coordination of brown and cream, along with a pair of brown Cartier sunglasses, layers of gold jewelry and coffee-colored boots.
How he’s dressed might sound like someone with a larger-than-life personality, but Wood says he’s pretty reserved. Instead, he uses his wardrobe to do the talking for him.
“I like the novelty of outfits because I’m naturally shy and introverted,” Wood said. “How I dress is kind of exuberant so it eases me into communicating and connecting with people.”
In Birmingham, there’s no better place for people like Wood to flex his fashion sense and engage with others in his community than at the Magic City Classic.
“The Classic,” as it’s often called, refers to the football game played by in-state rivals Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University at Legion Field. Though the two historically Black universities played each other for the first time in 1924, the contest wasn’t made an annual event until 1945.
Since then, the football game has become arguably the largest HBCU “Classic” game in the U.S., bringing in an average of 60,000 fans to Birmingham each year during the last week of October.
But “The Classic” has become much more than a football game. The week leading up to the game and the scene at Legion Field on game day has become a celebration of HBCU culture and Black culture in general. This includes a host of events and parties, tailgates, live music, celebrity appearances and — for fans like Wood — fashion.
“My passion for fashion came from those times when I was a little boy sitting on my mama’s lap,” Wood said. “I’m seeing all of these people come into the game with the nice haircut… the Gumby with the parts and the dye on the top. Like they got on the BKs, the Nike Air Force Ones, and Jordans. Just always having to be fly and just using my imagination and using what…
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