A low, booming voice announces, “We are Saber Sports,” over a slick Hip-hop beat. The camera pans over the unique black-and-gold logo. In capital letters, the phrase “From the Scripps Howard News Studio” rushes towards the screen. The 15-second intro ends as a desk full of Black, well-dressed, and smiling faces greet the audience.

In a society dominated by the Internet and social media, branding triumphs. Saber Sports creator Shane Fordham understood that lesson as he designed his successful sports debate show.

Aside from highlights, everything in the show is original student work. The name, the logo, the graphics, the scripts, the prompts: all of it comes strictly from the Saber Sports team at Hampton University.

Their hard work will soon pay dividends. In 2024, Saber Sports is set to become the first HBCU student-produced show to air on cable television. WTKR, the CBS affiliate news station in Norfolk, VA, agreed to put the show on their network.

“With the resources that the station was offering, it was hard to turn that offer down and that relationship down,” Fordham said. “It’s an avenue that is going to benefit not only everyone involved with Saber Sports now, but it could also benefit students in the future, whether they’re apart of Saber Sports or other shows that come out of Hampton in the future.”

Although the deal is groundbreaking, it’s not the first time the show has aired on a news station. In May, WSKY-TV, also known as Sky 4, took interest in the program.

Saber Sports and Sky 4 were still on terms to continue airing shows at the start of the Fall 2023 semester. However, as the team prepared to start back up, WTKR expressed interest.

“The interesting thing about WTKR is that Adam Chase, who is the Vice President there, he is on our Advisory Council board for the school,” said Julia Wilson, the Dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.

“I just thought that it would be a good fit. First of all, WTKR is a Scripps station, and our school is named after Scripps and the E.W. Scripps Company… I could see lots of exposure and lots of steps for them to move forward and progress. I called Adam Chase, he met with Shane and saw the show and he loved it.”

Given the opportunities and the “familial” relationship Scripps Howard already had with WTKR, the decision to switch from Sky 4 made sense for Fordham and the team.

In late October, the show was gearing up for its first episode since May. All the preparations and meetings had been completed. However, as the talent and production team gathered to film for the first time in months, Fordham called off the shoot.

One final obstacle stood in the way of the show: the rights to Saber Sports. In order to begin producing content, Fordham and the entire team had to decide whether to keep the rights of the show – including the Saber Sports name, logo, and graphics – or hand it over to the university.

Keeping the rights within the team would guarantee a greater cut of potential advertisement revenue and ensure that all things relating to Saber Sports would stay with the original crew, not the university. However, Fordham and the team would have to pay for their own licensing permits to use highlights on the show.

Although the university would take a cut of the money generated from the show, it would cover the licensing rights and continue to provide full access to the Scripps Howard studio equipment, if given the rights.

“There were positives and negatives to both, but signing the rights over to Hampton, I think was just more beneficial for all parties involved,” Fordham admitted. “Giving the rights over to the school would establish our legacy being the first group of students to ever have a production on this level, not just at Hampton, but at any other HBCU, and being one of the few universities in the country to even have a student production like this.”

Melanie Kee, the head of the writing department and one of show’s founding members, agreed with Fordham.

“I’m glad the decision was made for the rights to be kept with the school because I feel like that adds more longevity to the show and the program,” she said. “It makes it a very prestigious accomplishment for all of us to have worked on and created the first television [show] at an HBCU to partner with a local network.”

Not all members of the show, however, were on board with handing the rights to Hampton.

“I personally didn’t want to give the school the rights,” said Brandon Richards, the head of the research department. “I feel like they are benefitting from the decision more than us as a team. However, I do support the decision.”

Although Fordham ultimately decided on giving the rights to the university, he and other team members expressed concerns. They were “hesitant” to hand over something they had created from scratch.

The idea for Saber Sports first originated in 2020 during the pandemic. As Hampton shut its doors for a full school year, Fordham spent time watching his favorite sports television shows such as First Take and Undisputed.  

Once the students returned to campus, Fordham enrolled in JAC 440, a news production class with professor Thomas Heffron. Heffron repeatedly urged students to create their own shows, which planted the seed in Fordham’s mind.

“[My] initial reaction was enthusiasm,” Heffron said. “I was happy that a student was martialing their own idea into shape and able to corral the interest of other students to participate… I helped him think about structure and working within time frames: making sure things weren’t too top heavy, focusing on Hampton sports. Stuff that he had talked about that I kind of kept bringing him back to. I take no credit for content or vibe.”

The JAC 440 class produced the first season of the show. Fordham hand picked his crewmates because he “knew who could do what” and “who to trust to do certain things.”

In fact, he intentionally kept the initial team small to hammer in the basic structure and flow of the show. It wasn’t until the second season of the show in the Fall of 2022 when Saber Sports opened recruiting to the public.

The show kept improving and gaining traction throughout the year. Eventually, towards the end of the 2022-23 school year, Wilson established the connection with Sky 4.

“The Dean’s office is always reaching out to media outlets to get internships, to build partnerships with TV stations [both] local ones and national ones, and other organizations for our students,” Wilson said.

“Sky 4 was one of those. The lady there was a part of the Virginia Association of Broadcasters. As a part of my partnership conversation with VAB, Sky 4 was part of that. When I saw Saber Sports, I said, ‘Let me just reach out and stick my toe in the water to see if they might be interested in airing Saber Sports.’”

Of course, just a few months later, Wilson also helped broker the deal with Saber Sports and WTKR.

There’s a palpable sense of anticipation among Fordham and the Saber Sports team. Everyone is ready to film, and they already have a release schedule worked out with WTKR. Once the deal is finalized, shooting is set to begin.

Despite the desire to begin producing content, Fordham is enjoying the moment. He remains grateful for the journey, watching as a small idea blossomed into a successful television-worthy product.

“None of what we have accomplished could have been possible without those two,” Fordham said in reference to Heffron and Wilson. “Those two were with us since the beginning… I’m thankful for all of the support and feedback that the show has received, especially from my fellow Hampton students, and I’m thankful for everyone who is and has ever been a part of the show and believing in what it can be.”