Benjy Taylor, the men’s basketball coach at Division II Tuskegee University, was escorted off the court in handcuffs after a postgame incident Saturday.
Videos posted to social media by HBCU Gameday show Taylor confronting a security officer as players from Tuskegee and rival Morehouse College exchanged handshakes following Saturday’s game.
After a brief exchange, the officer placed Taylor in handcuffs and led him off the court into a hallway at Morehouse’s Forbes Arena.
We have new new footage and insight from Tuskegee 👀: https://t.co/eDyEz8cuSK pic.twitter.com/WdcYkcaCpE
— HBCU Gameday (@HBCUGameday) February 1, 2026
Taylor and Tuskegee athletic director Reginald Ruffin both stated that Taylor asked the security officer to help remove multiple Morehouse football players from the handshake line. Taylor said in a statement that the football players were “yelling obscenities” while Ruffin added that the football players were creating a “security breach.”
“I am at a loss for words, and I am upset about how I was violated and treated today,” Taylor said Saturday in a statement to multiple media outlets. “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 the security officer provided a differing account of the exchange and claimed that Taylor was “very aggressive.” Ruffin said he disagreed with the officer’s assessment, citing “security measures” that are “mandated by the conference” and adding that he thought Taylor acted reasonably.
“He asked the security officer, ‘Can you please remove them from the line?’ That’s what he asked the security officer,” Ruffin told HBCU Gameday.
Civil rights attorney Harry Daniels announced Sunday that Taylor has hired him to pursue a possible lawsuit. Daniels said in a statement that the Morehouse football players were “acting aggressively” toward Tuskegee players and their families.
“Such behavior from the Morehouse football players, particularly their intermingling with the basketball players on the court and during the postgame handshake is prohibited by conference-mandated security protocols,” Daniels said in his statement. “When Coach Taylor asked two police officers to enforce those protocols attempting to diffuse an increasingly dangerous situation, however, one of the officers chose to place him in handcuffs and escort him from the court.”
It was not clear as of Monday morning which law enforcement agency the security officer represents. Taylor has not been charged with a crime, according to Daniels’ office, and the school confirmed that Taylor accompanied the team on its return bus ride to Tuskegee.
Taylor, who is in his sixth season as Tuskegee’s coach, declined to elaborate further on the situation when contacted Sunday by USA Today, saying: “I am devastated and I will have no more comments at this time.” The Golden Tigers fell to 15-5 this season with Saturday’s 77-69 loss to Morehouse.
“It would be bad for a police officer to treat anyone like this,” Daniels said in his statement. “But to do it to a man like Coach Taylor, a highly respected professional and role model, to put him in handcuffs, humiliate him and treat him like a criminal in front of his team, his family and a gym full of fans is absolutely disgusting and they need to be held accountable.”
On Monday, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference fined Morehouse an undisclosed amount, saying it failed to meet mandated conference safety standards.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
