Our Own Standard™ ← Return to the story

Our Own Standard™ Presents

The 1965 Marauders
Legacy Collection

Help preserve the people, places, photographs, documents, and memories behind an unbeaten standard.

In 1965, Central State College’s Marauders completed an undefeated 30–0 season and won the NAIA National Championship. Their achievement belongs not to one place alone, but to the players’ hometowns; their families, teachers, coaches, and classmates; Central State and Wilberforce; Xenia, Dayton, and the East End; the fans who traveled and celebrated; and the wider HBCU community.

Our Own Standard™ is seeking stories, artifacts, and leads that help preserve the full history of the 1964–65 Central State Marauders.

Share a Story, Artifact, or Lead What We Are Seeking

The Collection

History survives because someone kept it.

A family photograph. A folded newspaper clipping. A game program tucked inside a book. A letter, a ticket stub, a story told at the kitchen table. Every contribution can help clarify the record and preserve what otherwise could be lost.

Photographs & Film

Team images, player and coach portraits, game action, campus life, family photographs, celebrations, travel, neighborhood life, film, and home-video material.

Documents & Memorabilia

Programs, schedules, scorebooks, ticket stubs, yearbooks, newspaper clippings, letters, scrapbooks, press materials, and ephemera.

Memories & Leads

Personal recollections, oral-history contacts, corrections, names, locations, family connections, and information about people or collections that may help tell the story.

Many Homes, One Story

The legacy reaches farther than the final score.

The 1965 Marauders story belongs to the men who played, the coach who built the standard, and the people and institutions that helped make the season possible.

The Central State ecosystem includes the campus, Wilberforce, the East End, the Xenia area, Dayton, Yellow Springs, Springfield and other communities in that history. It is not the collection’s boundary. This initiative welcomes materials and memories from every community connected to the team and its era including Columbus, Sandusky, Urbana, Cleveland, Middletown, Canton, and Lima. Also, Chicago, River Rouge, and Saginaw among others.

Central State Alumni, students, faculty, staff, athletics supporters, campus organizations, University history, and family collections.
Wilberforce Families, churches, businesses, local institutions, neighbors, and community memories surrounding the University.
Xenia & East End Community witnesses, families, neighborhood photographs, local celebrations, businesses, schools, and longtime residents.
Dayton & Ohio Alumni networks, regional media, basketball communities, civic organizations, and families connected to the championship era.
Hometowns Players’ families, high schools, coaches, churches, hometown newspapers, youth teams, and local historians from across the country.
HBCU Community Alumni, historians, athletes, educators, journalists, Greek-letter organizations, supporters, and cultural institutions preserving HBCU excellence across generations.

Our Commitment

Your history remains yours.

This is a community-preservation initiative. We are asking people to help locate and document history—not to give away family property, personal memory, or control over how materials are used.

  • You keep your original materials.
  • A story, scan, photograph, or lead does not transfer ownership of an original item.
  • We will contact contributors before public use in the Collection, Our Own Standard™, related website materials, or promotional work.
  • Contributors will be credited according to their preference whenever possible.
  • We welcome corrections, context, and family knowledge that improve the historical record.
  • Please do not mail, alter, sell, discard, or donate an original item before speaking with us.

Add to the Story

Do you have a story, artifact, or lead?

You do not need to know every detail. Tell us what you remember, share a photograph of an item, or identify someone who may have materials from the 1964–65 Central State Marauders era. Every lead matters.

Required fields are marked *. Describe your materials first. No file uploads are collected through this form.

Contributor acknowledgments

Formspree processes your submission for project follow-up. We will not publish your contact details. Do not include sensitive personal information. Contact [email protected] about privacy, corrections, or removal requests.

Prefer email? [email protected]. Follow any Formspree confirmation instructions displayed after submission.

Collection Notice

The 1965 Marauders Legacy Collection is an ongoing historical research and preservation initiative of Our Own Standard™. Information may come from original records, published sources, oral histories, and community submissions. Names, dates, captions, and recollections may be incomplete, approximate, disputed, or awaiting verification.

Contributors retain ownership of original materials unless a separate written agreement states otherwise. Submission of an image, scan, memory, or research lead does not automatically grant permission for public display, reproduction, publication, or other use. Appropriate permission will be discussed before public use.

Copyright and other rights may remain with their respective owners. If you believe that material is inaccurate, misidentified, improperly attributed, private, or should be reviewed or removed, please contact [email protected].

This is an independent historical project. References to Central State University, HBCU GO, the National Pan-Hellenic Council, its member organizations, or other institutions do not imply affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement. Ownership of a physical item does not necessarily include copyright. Recollections are testimony and may require corroboration. Public reuse requires appropriate rights-holder permission.