A tribute to mom: Why playing North Carolina Central matters to UCLA's Martin Jarmond
The scene that unfolded before the Jarmonds for North Carolina Central's biggest football game of the season was always one that drew them back, year after year.
The high-stepping, vibrant bands. The impromptu reunions, fans running into former classmates they had not seen in years. The dramatic games that always seemed to come down to the final possession.
That's just the way it was whenever NCCU played its archrival, North Carolina A&T. It was the Eagles versus the Aggies, and in the home of Martin Jarmond, it was mom versus dad in a battle of alma maters.
The game would be dubbed the Aggie-Eagle Classic or the Eagle-Aggie Classic, depending on the home team. Shunning that tradition, Matt Jarmond always called it the Aggie-Eagle Classic in a nod to his alma mater, A&T, never mind that his wife and mother both went to that other school.
The father's fanaticism for the blue and gold rubbed off on his son to the point where young Martin just had to root for the Aggies, even if it forced him to hide his preference. Sitting near his mother, Virginia, the family matriarch dressed
