ATLANTA AUTHOR BRINGS NEGRO FOOTBALL HISTORY TO LIFE IN NEW HISTORICAL TRILOGY
Erica Ahmed’s new historical novel, The Owner’s Box: The Inheritance, grows from her discovery of her grandfather’s
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Erica Ahmed’s new historical novel, The Owner’s Box: The Inheritance, grows from her discovery of her grandfather’s Negro football legacy.
ATLANTA, GA, UNITED STATES, September 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Owner’s Box: The Inheritance introduces readers to the people, teams and communities behind a largely overlooked chapter of American football—and the family discovery that led to Negro League Football™.
What began with a family story about a grandfather who played football in the 1940s has grown into an effort to recover a largely overlooked chapter of American sports history.
Erica Ahmed’s new historical fiction novel, The Owner’s Box: The Inheritance, brings readers into the world of Negro football in 1936, when Black athletes and communities were building and sustaining their own football organizations in an era when the NFL excluded Black players. The novel is also the latest expression of Ahmed’s work as founder of Negro League Football™, a historical and educational initiative dedicated to researching, documenting and preserving that history.
“I was very grown when I learned that my grandfather and his brothers had played professional football,” said Ahmed. “I had heard fragments of the story, but I had no idea of the world they were part of. Once I began looking, I realized how much of this history had been lost, scattered, or never documented. Those fragments became my calling.” Ahmed’s grandfather, Hubert Simpson, had been a quarterback for the Harrisburg (PA) Trojans in 1941, the year the team won the World Negro Football Championship against the New York Brown Bombers.
The discovery led Ahmed to research teams and players far beyond her own family. Like Negro League baseball, Negro football emerged from the realities of segregation and exclusion, but its history has received far less attention in the American sports narrative. By 1933, Black players had been shut out of the NFL, making it necessary for Black athletes and communities to build competitive football opportunities of their own.
The Owner’s Box: The Inheritance draws from that historical landscape while telling a fictional story of its own. Set in 1936, the first book in a planned trilogy follows the Birmingham Hammers and the Harrisburg Trojans as questions of ownership, land, family, community and survival collide against the realities of segregation.
The novel is fiction, grounded in the challenges confronting Negro football teams and Black communities during this era.
“The history is always first,” Ahmed said. “The novel gives people a way into that history through story. Negro League Football™ amplifies the people, teams and communities whose contributions deserve to be remembered.”
An excerpt from The Owner’s Box:
Something long denied was now in plain view. Near the main entrance, a brass band from the local lodge worked its way through “St. Louis Blues.” Tuba notes thumped against the ribs of everyone in earshot, while horns climbed brightly above them.
The 48 minutes had begun. By kickoff, the stands were full; bleachers groaning and buckling under the weight of nearly 3,000 fans.
“They look bigger than our boys, Granddaddy,” Calob whispered, his eyes wide at the Harrisburg line warming up across the field. The old man didn’t look away. “Steel is heavy, son, but fire moves faster.”
Published August 19, 2026, by Negro League Football, LLC, The Owner’s Box: The Inheritance is available in paperback through Amazon and IngramSpark. ISBN-13: 979-8234120304. https://a.co/d/0gIiunkP
The release comes as the 2026 football season gets underway, providing an opportunity to revisit a period when football was being played, organized and sustained outside the boundaries of the NFL.
ABOUT NEGRO LEAGUE FOOTBALL, LLC
Negro League Football, LLC is a historical and educational initiative founded by Erica Ahmed to research, preserve and promote the history of Negro professional and semi-professional football.
ABOUT ERICA AHMED
Erica Ahmed is a public health strategist and founder of Negro League Football, LLC. Her career spans more than two decades in public health, communications, education and consulting. She also founded The Green Laundress, an eco-friendly consumer products company. Ahmed holds a Master of Science in Health Education from Columbia University (NY) and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Bowie State University (MD).
Media Contact: J. Winston
Negro League Football, LLC
+1 404-981-8568
info@thenegroleaguefootball.com
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