A crowd of 2,587 fans showed up Sept. 3 at Hampton University’s Armstrong Stadium to learn who is “the real HU.”

For the sixth straight season, it turned out to be the host HU Pirates, who edged Howard University’s Bison, 31-28.

The continuing competition between the HBCU rivals is billed as the “Battle for the Real HU,” and dates to the early 1900s when Hampton and Howard were members of the CIAA.

Times have changed. Hampton is now in its first season in the Colonial Athletic Association while Howard remains one of six football playing members of the MEAC.

The Pirates’ bus driver can take this week off.

Coach Robert Prunty’s Pirates will stay home Sept. 10 to face Alabama’s Tuskegee University at 6 p.m. Tuskegee competes in the Division II SIAC.

Among the standouts for HU against HU was quarterback Malcolm Mays, a native of Arlington, Texas, and transfer from Kilgore Junior College in Texas.

The 6-foot-5 Mays showed the Hampton crowd much of what he showed a season ago at Kilgore, when he threw for 2,722 yards and 26 touchdowns in 10 games. He was considered among the top JUCO quarterbacks in the nation this past offseason.

In his first game wearing Hampton blues, Mays hit 14 of 25 passes for 190 yards. The Pirates led 31-13 early in the fourth period before the Bison launched a spirited comeback that fell short.

Chris Zellous rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown, and Darran Butts added a TD on a 75-yard gallop.

Defensively, linebacker Qwahsin Townsell, a transfer from Villanova, was in on 14 tackles.

Romon Copeland caught seven passes for 82 yards.

After Tuskegee, HU will travel to Norfolk State on ept. 17 before playing its first Colonial matchup Sept. 24 at Delaware.