Following a postgame confrontation on Saturday, Division II Tuskegee University men’s basketball coach Benjy Taylor was led off the field in handcuffs.
After Saturday’s game, athletes from Tuskegee and rival Morehouse College shook hands in videos that HBCU Gameday shared on social media, showing Taylor confronting a security guard.
After a brief exchange, the officer placed Taylor in handcuffs and escorted him off the court into a hallway at Morehouse’s Forbes Arena.
Trying to sort out what happened at the end of this HBCU rivalry game 👀
Here is what we know: https://t.co/eDyEz8cuSK pic.twitter.com/en5f6Qq3Oj
— HBCU Gameday (@HBCUGameday) January 31, 2026
Taylor and Tuskegee athletic director Reginald Ruffin both alleged that Taylor asked the security officer to help remove many Morehouse football players from the handshake line.
Ruffin stated that the football players were causing a “security breach,” while Taylor claimed in a statement that the players were “yelling obscenities.” Taylor said Saturday in a statement to numerous media outlets:
“I am at a loss for words, and I am upset about how I was violated and treated today,”
“For my players, my family and people of Tuskegee to witness that is heartbreaking for me.
“I was simply trying to get the football team out of the handshake line as they were following right behind me and the team yelling obscenities! It was a very dangerous situation.”
Ruffin told HBCU Gameday that he disagreed with the security officer’s assessment, citing “security measures” that are “mandated by the conference” and adding that he believed Taylor acted reasonably. The security officer gave a different account of the exchange and claimed that Taylor was “very aggressive.”
