Siblings attending rivalry schools

Not only is Grambling State University and Southern University and A & M College rivalry schools, but siblings have split up to attend these two schools simultaneously.
Carey Ash, president of the SU Student Government Association has a step-sister, Tamara Johnson, who attends Grambling. Ash said she is a senior criminal justice and English major from Baton Rouge graduating May 2008. Ash is a senior political science and history major from Baton Rouge also graduating in May 2008.
According to Ash, he decided to come to Southern because he comes from a long line of jaguars.
“My great grandfather came to this institution; my grandmother worked here; my mother and my uncle graduated from here; here I am, the fourth generation.”
But when asked why his step-sister went to Grambling, Ash replied, “I don’t understand why people make mistakes. I honestly don’t know why people would choose the beautiful bluffs to the piney hills of Grambling.
Despite her error in choosing an institution in higher learning commented Ash, “the beautiful thing about the two universities is their history. We have a cause and common goal, their common purpose; we share a common struggle, and we try to overcome that together by bettering African Americans.”
But when it comes to the Bayou Classic, they do attend the game together; however, they sit on their respective sides said Ash.
A football scholarship brought senior Jeremy Jason from New Orleans to Southern while his sister, Leah Johnson, also from New Orleans, went to Grambling. She followed in Joshua Jason’s footstep – the eldest brother of the two and a Grambling graduate in business management.
If it were not for the scholarship, the mass communications major said, “I would be at Grambling right now because of my brother. We’re two years apart. We’re close.”
Despite the geographical distance between Jeremy and his brother Joshua, Jeremy said, “I have no regrets about coming to Southern; I like Southern. My friends are here.”
Because Joshua is an entrepreneur, a barbershop owner with financial means, Jason said he believes that’s why Leah, the junior criminal justice major, decided to go to Grambling – easy financial access.
When Jeremy reminisced about previous Classics during his football tenure, he said he did not have the privilege of playing in the Classic, but he was on the sidelines in uniform; however, the Fall 2004 Classic he recants as being memorable because Southern lost that year. At a news conference, Jeremy continued, Grambling players taunted the Southern players insinuating that they were better than Southern and therefore, the verbal assaults almost ended in a physical altercation.
Senior mass communications major Charles Hill from Inglewood, Calif., has a slightly different story; he actually attended Grambling and then transferred to Southern, leaving his brother Jeff Baylor, a senior political science major also from Inglewood, Calif. at Grambling.
According to Hill, his reasons for the transfer were for “better conditions, sports and a bigger campus.” He also said there was a lot of violence and drugs on and around campus, but then a shooting occurred; that was the climax, his turning point.
“Water was off for two weeks,” said Hill.
Hill told how water had to be rationed by dispersing water bottles and by designating times for showers to be taken in the locker room. Hill said many on campus residents knew people off of campus and chose that route, like he did, for shower taking, but that most of the freshmen didn’t; therefore, they were the ones mostly affected by the water rarity.
When it came to sports, Hill was a trainer for the track team at GSU, so he continued that task at SU. Levell Betram called Johnny Thomas and said “my boy is coming down there and take care of him,” said Hill, the two head track coaches for GSU and SU respectively. Coach Betram told Hill that he would prefer that he goes to Southern more than any other HBCU in the Southwestern Athletic Conference because of the comraderie he has with Southern coaches, said Hill.
Hill states that he was also encouraged to attend Southern by his cousin, who is currently his roommate, and by uncle Albert Luster, graduate of SU Law School and Secretary Attorney of Defense for the president of the United States.
When Hill thinks of the Bayou Classic, Hill said he enjoyed Classic 2004 which included a party sponsored by Cash Money Records, a rap label and Grambling cheerleaders at the Radisson Hotel.