Reggie McKie was new to the supporter scene.
He was ready to attend Atlanta United’s inaugural home match at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Reggie got involved a few weeks prior with Footie Mob, one of Atlanta United’s biggest supporter groups. He was at the tailgate before the match when a fellow 5-Stripes fan came up to him.
“Someone puts a bullhorn in my hand and says, ‘You got this.’”
They wanted Reggie to be a capo, in charge of leading chants during the match, orchestrating the atmosphere. He hadn’t planned on it whatsoever, but he was ready.
That moment gave him a chance to let his voice be heard, a voice of leadership that Reggie honed throughout his life. He thinks back to his time at Morehouse College, one of Atlanta’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, where he began molding that voice. To him, the HBCU experience was everything.
Foundational: Reggie’s HBCU experience
Reggie, like so many in Atlanta and around the country, believes his time at an HBCU was transformational.
“It gives you such a foundation,” he said. “It was definitely an eye opener for me … The people you meet, the experience is so hard to explain sometimes, but I wouldn't change a thing. That’s probably one of the best experiences in my life.”
Reggie is a Morehouse alumnus, class of 1993. He studied psychology, got involved in Glee Club and maybe most importantly, met his wife Melanie, who attended Spelman College at the same time. Spelman is a women’s college located, like Morehouse, in Atlanta’s University Center — home to Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse, Spelman, Morehouse School of Medicine, Morris Brown College and the Interdenominational Theological Center.
Reggie’s decision to attend an HBCU wasn’t something he was set on from a young age. After all, he didn’t know anyone in his life aside from his grandmother who went to college. But then, he went with his brother to watch Spike Lee’s “School Daze”, a film following characters at a fictional HBCU that shot on location in the University Center.
Seeing Lee’s movie, according to Reggie, sealed his decision. He was going to go to Morehouse.
The experience was everything he could’ve hoped for and more. Reggie, coincidentally, brought to mind a quote from Lee.
“Spike Lee once said it's like an oasis culturally,” Reggie said. “That was the first time I had a Black professor, the leadership all around, they all looked like me. That was my first experience with that. I was just immersed in that.”
There, Reggie dove into the community. It’s a word that so many, including many of AMBSE’s associates, chose to define their college experience at HBCUs.
“It blew me away,” Reggie said. “Once I got there and started meeting people, I formed lifelong friendships, people who are godparents to our sons.”
Reggie went on to become president of Footie Mob and a capo at Atlanta United matches through the 2024 season, leading fans in chants and matchday traditions. He said he’s “retired” now (in air quotes), which gives him the chance to watch the games with his wife. He and Melanie have been season ticket holders since 2018.
His HBCU experience was the foundation for a life of leadership.
“To do that for four years, by the time I finished, I was like, ‘Wow, I can literally walk into any room, any situation, with confidence, with support,’” Reggie said. “That really goes a long way.”
Influential: HBCU culture in the Supporter Section and across Atlanta
If you’ve ever been to an Atlanta United game, you know the Supporter Section is the place to be. The energy, the sound, the passion, it’s unbeatable.
Many of the key elements of that experience are rooted in HBCU culture. The drumlines, the horns sections, they reflect the sound of the HBCU bands that are such an integral part of the gameday experience at those schools.
Homecoming is a massive moment at HBCUs, and the football game is a culmination of all that anticipation. Alumni return to their alma maters to not only watch the game itself, but to participate in the chants, represent their school and of course watch the bands and dancers at halftime.
“It’s like matchday squared, sometimes add a little steroids to it,” Reggie said. “… The gameday experience for HBCUs is unlike anything else … A lot of stuff that we do, you would think it’s a supporter section, but HBCUs were doing that before supporter sections. Decades, decades, decades of call and response, making up songs right there in the stands.”
The way Atlanta United mirrors this is absolutely intentional. It’s a thread of culture tying together the city of Atlanta. Reggie was insistent that, wherever you go, there should be indicators throughout matchday of what city you’re in. He said the sound of brass and drums “is Atlanta.”
“You should be able to hear it and see it,” he said. “You come to an Atlanta United game, especially on HBCU night, you should know that's Atlanta. They got a drum line … It's very important to have at least that drumline and that culture as part of the matchday experience.”
Just look at a map and see how close Atlanta University Center is to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That physical proximity is enough for culture to be imparted. AUC is less than a mile south of MBS, a brief walk at most.
The stadium hosts HBCU events for schools across the country, like the Cricket Celebration Bowl. The game between the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference features two HBCUs. The Band of the Year competition goes along with the bowl game, taking place the Friday before.
It’s the people — folks like Reggie and Melanie who are HBCU alumni — that drive the influence. Reggie said he’s always surprised how many HBCU alumni attend Atlanta United games and participate in supporter groups.
“Once you make that connection, that's it,” he said. “… It's a lot of fun, because there’s already that connection, but now you're experiencing something like Atlanta United together.”
Prideful: How HBCU night will celebrate Black Excellence
When Mercedes-Benz stadium fills up for Atlanta United’s matchup with FC Dallas Saturday, it’ll be much more than just another regular season match. The club will celebrate HBCU night and feature some incredible moments. The Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will be performed by the Morehouse Glee Club. Morehouse’s drumline will feature during halftime and will be stationed in the Supporter Section during the match.
It’ll be a night full of Black culture at MBS. Reggie will be there, enveloped in the pageantry, doing what he knows to do: bring people together through his voice of leadership.
HBCU alumni find each other wherever they are, and it’s especially easy on the night in their honor. And while a Morehouse man may joke with a Clark Atlanta grad about their fierce rivalry on the field, it’s all love outside the lines.
“At the kitchen table, you might fight over the Kool-Aid, you might fight over who had the most food,” Reggie said. “[But] when we leave house, it’s family. When you leave campus, when you go out to the world, it's really about family.”
It’ll feel like a family gathering in many ways, or maybe an Atlanta soccer Homecoming. Above all, Saturday’s festivities will be a celebration of Black Excellence.
“Black Excellence means understanding and realizing that you're standing on big, broad shoulders,” Reggie said. “I'm here because of what others did before, generations, generations, generations before … Excellence is an ongoing process. You've never made it … but I do see those behind I want to reach back and want to support.”
Reggie seemed to choose his words very carefully, taking care in the way he voices his experience. He looked over to Melanie, asking if she thought he did his story justice.
“The purpose is to bring people from the margin to the center,” Melanie added about the HBCU experience. “You need to between the ages of 18 and 21. That's one of the most important times in your life, it’s when you’re informing your identity. To have that time to feel that you're not other, that you belong … We have so many strong people from HBCUs because in that formative time in your life, you have these opportunities to be centered, and then to have all those people pouring into you so that you can grow become your best self, and so that's what HBCUs do.”
