Drawing on an extensive review of available documents and my own personal recollections, this history describes the research and capacity building activities in Africa from 1963-1978 of the then Department of Agricultural Economics (AEC) of Michigan State University. The aim is to analyze how MSU came to be a leader in food and agricultural economics related to Africa that endures today. I first review the involvement of AEC faculty in the institutional building project at the University of Nigeria in the 1960s that involved the two main protagonists of the history. First from 1965-1971, Glenn L. Johnson initiated and led large projects to analyze and plan the Nigerian agricultural sector, based on paper and pencil projections and then pioneering simulation modeling. Second, Carl K. Eicher from 1970 built an extensive program of microlevel research involving intensive household surveys mostly focused on Sierra Leone. Both had important legacies in follow-on AEC activities throughout Africa and in the agricultural development profession, more generally. I argue that Eicher ‘seized the moment’ to aggressively recruit African graduate students and others with interests in Africa that through their thesis work and later employment as AEC faculty, became the bedrock of AEC’s food security programs in Africa.