HIU 93
March 7th, 2006, 01:38 PM
I ran across this article on AOL/Black Voices. It is very well written and informative. Having just returned from my 27th CIAA Tournament, I can echo the sentiments in the article.
And Still We Rise
By Lut Williams, AOL Black Voices HBCU Columnist
It's rather appropriate that the CIAA Basketball Tournament is held during the last days of the month that celebrates Black History since the tournament stands as a monument of success and an institution that parallels the path to progress for African-American people.
CIAA History
From its humble beginnings at a musty boxing gym/dance hall (Turner’s Arena) that barely seated 2,000 in the nation’s capital 60 years ago, the tournament, which begins its 61st run in Charlotte this week, will play to sold out crowds of over 18,000 fans at the new, state-of-the-art Bobcats Arena, a building owned by the NBA’s only African-American owner. That’s quite a historic journey. It has grown from a three-day weekend tournament into a week-long affair that will generate over $12 million for the local economy and draw well over 100,000 fans and visitors to North Carolina’s Queen City.
Crowds have always longed for the CIAA’s brand of basketball -- black players, coaches and institutions, defying the odds, creating magic in the hostile environments of Southern cities. Those are factors that have added to its allure. The CIAA and its championship tournament was actually the beginning of what the NBA has become, a high-flying showcase of some of the best black basketball talent in the world. And though the CIAA and the world outside have changed, it still holds a unique and special place on the national college basketball scene. Started by enterprising and forward-thinking coaches led by the late North Carolina College (now N.C. Central University) visionary John McLendon, the CIAA Tournament has become one of the largest, most successful and best-attended basketball events of any kind in the country, rivaling the ACC and Big East tournaments in economic impact and attendance numbers while surpassing them in social impact.
Because of the conference’s and the tournament’s place in history -- as a refuge for black people, including students, coaches, players and fans, in the both the North and South, from the hardcourt playgrounds of New York to the dust-covered courts of Alabama -- its legend has endured and its appeal has lasted.
A Rough Beginning
The tournament’s path to its present-day status was riddled with thorns. Founded in an era when Jim Crow ruled America, particularly the South, the tournament survived for more than a decade primarily on and in the confines of black college campuses and the homes and businesses of its well-wishers. At Turner’s (three years) and Uline Arena (three years) in Washington, at Morgan State University (Hurt Gymnasium, one year) in Baltimore and at North Carolina College in Durham (McDougald Gymnasium, seven years), the tournament drew packed crowds to relatively small arenas.
McLendon was the tournament's early star, winning the first championship for NCC before moving on to Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in 1952 and eventually to Tennessee A&I (now Tennessee State) in 1954 where he became the first coach on any level to win three consecutive national championships (NAIA, 1957-59). He left the CIAA in the capable hands of luminary coaches like Clarence "Big House" Gaines of Winston-Salem Teacher's College (now Winston-Salem State University), Cal Irvin of North Carolina A&T, "Tricky" Tom Harris of Virginia Union and Bobby Vaughn of Elizabeth City Teacher’s College (now Elizabeth City State University).
The tournament moved into true public awareness during the civil rights era. Less than 30 days after the fateful Feb. 1, 1960 sit-in at a whites-only Greensboro, N.C. lunch counter, the CIAA Tournament came to town and a new era began.
According to archives of the old Greensboro Daily News, the opening night quarterfinals of the three-day 1960 tournament drew a record crowd of 4,225. That year was also the first time CIAA teams stayed in local hotels rather than in dorms. But Greensboro and the South remained segregated. The few hotels that did allow black guests instituted policies like trying to limit how may people could gather in a room at a time or the counting of towels at checkout. “They were afraid of us,” said Vaughn, who led Elizabeth City to 502 wins in an illustrious career that spanned from the early 1950s to 1986 and who was often involved in negotiations for the tournament sites. “They had never seen that many black people at one time.”
The Tournament stayed in Greensboro just one year as the Coliseum had booked a circus for the dates the following year. Gaines’s squad, with Cleo Hill as the tourney’s MVP, won the 1960 tournament and Gaines was instrumental in moving it to Winston-Salem’s War Memorial Coliseum for the next three years, “out of desperation,” said Vaughn. The Tournament returned to the Greensboro Coliseum in 1964 and began a 12-year run, all on one-year contracts.
“We didn’t know from one year to the next where we were going,” said Vaughn. “That was the nature of the situation we were in.”
The Greensboro run, the longest in CIAA history, began just before the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, which among other things outlawed segregation in public accommodations including restaurants and hotels. With this new openness, Greensboro and its Coliseum in February became ‘a place to be.’ The Tournament became a happening. The crowds increased and the basketball got even better.
In 1965, James "Hook Shot" Grant of Norfolk State, a school that had joined the CIAA three years earlier, put on a display that’s still talked about by those old enough to have witnessed it. He scored 38 points, mostly on the shot for which he earned his nickname, as the Spartans beat Irvin’s hometown favorite A&T Aggies, 100-87. "He shoots that shot from anywhere and doesn’t bank it," said Ernie Fears, then Norfolk State’s head coach to the Greensboro Record. A record crowd of 7,308 fans packed the Coliseum for that final.
Your Call
During the Greensboro-Winston-Salem run, the CIAA and its Tournament made legends of players like Hill, Theodore Blount, and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe of Winston-Salem State. Richard "Pee Wee" Kirkland and Bobby Dandridge of Norfolk State became playground and professional stars as did players like Mike Gale of Elizabeth City and Maurice McHeartley of A&T. CIAA rosters were dotted with players from Philadelphia like Monroe, from New Jersey like Hill and Blount, and from New York, like Kirkland. The CIAA had a reputation that extended all along the East coast.
But in the late 60s, with the conference bulging at the seams with 18 schools, there was a movement afoot for some of the larger schools to break away and form their own conference. In 1971, that movement resulted in the formation of the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference and the defection from the CIAA of A&T, Morgan State, Maryland State (now Maryland-Eastern Shore), Howard, North Carolina Central and Delaware State. More importantly for the CIAA Tournament, after 1976 the Greensboro Coliseum decided it did not want to renew the Tournament’s contract to play there.
The Payoff
It is said and believed by many that so-called integration in America was responsible for the disintegration of many institutions in the black community. Not so the CIAA Tournament. It has endured and prospered in spite of integration and many other challenges along the way. Treasured schools have departed and more are threatening to do so. And despite the fact that the CIAA gets nothing like the talent it did 60 or even 40 years ago, it continues to rise. But it has never been just a basketball tournament. The CIAA Tournament is a social event where the accomplishments of black people are celebrated. It represents a culture of achievement that has always been and likely will always be. It’s what sets it apart from others. And it owes its success to that history.
And Still We Rise
By Lut Williams, AOL Black Voices HBCU Columnist
It's rather appropriate that the CIAA Basketball Tournament is held during the last days of the month that celebrates Black History since the tournament stands as a monument of success and an institution that parallels the path to progress for African-American people.
CIAA History
From its humble beginnings at a musty boxing gym/dance hall (Turner’s Arena) that barely seated 2,000 in the nation’s capital 60 years ago, the tournament, which begins its 61st run in Charlotte this week, will play to sold out crowds of over 18,000 fans at the new, state-of-the-art Bobcats Arena, a building owned by the NBA’s only African-American owner. That’s quite a historic journey. It has grown from a three-day weekend tournament into a week-long affair that will generate over $12 million for the local economy and draw well over 100,000 fans and visitors to North Carolina’s Queen City.
Crowds have always longed for the CIAA’s brand of basketball -- black players, coaches and institutions, defying the odds, creating magic in the hostile environments of Southern cities. Those are factors that have added to its allure. The CIAA and its championship tournament was actually the beginning of what the NBA has become, a high-flying showcase of some of the best black basketball talent in the world. And though the CIAA and the world outside have changed, it still holds a unique and special place on the national college basketball scene. Started by enterprising and forward-thinking coaches led by the late North Carolina College (now N.C. Central University) visionary John McLendon, the CIAA Tournament has become one of the largest, most successful and best-attended basketball events of any kind in the country, rivaling the ACC and Big East tournaments in economic impact and attendance numbers while surpassing them in social impact.
Because of the conference’s and the tournament’s place in history -- as a refuge for black people, including students, coaches, players and fans, in the both the North and South, from the hardcourt playgrounds of New York to the dust-covered courts of Alabama -- its legend has endured and its appeal has lasted.
A Rough Beginning
The tournament’s path to its present-day status was riddled with thorns. Founded in an era when Jim Crow ruled America, particularly the South, the tournament survived for more than a decade primarily on and in the confines of black college campuses and the homes and businesses of its well-wishers. At Turner’s (three years) and Uline Arena (three years) in Washington, at Morgan State University (Hurt Gymnasium, one year) in Baltimore and at North Carolina College in Durham (McDougald Gymnasium, seven years), the tournament drew packed crowds to relatively small arenas.
McLendon was the tournament's early star, winning the first championship for NCC before moving on to Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in 1952 and eventually to Tennessee A&I (now Tennessee State) in 1954 where he became the first coach on any level to win three consecutive national championships (NAIA, 1957-59). He left the CIAA in the capable hands of luminary coaches like Clarence "Big House" Gaines of Winston-Salem Teacher's College (now Winston-Salem State University), Cal Irvin of North Carolina A&T, "Tricky" Tom Harris of Virginia Union and Bobby Vaughn of Elizabeth City Teacher’s College (now Elizabeth City State University).
The tournament moved into true public awareness during the civil rights era. Less than 30 days after the fateful Feb. 1, 1960 sit-in at a whites-only Greensboro, N.C. lunch counter, the CIAA Tournament came to town and a new era began.
According to archives of the old Greensboro Daily News, the opening night quarterfinals of the three-day 1960 tournament drew a record crowd of 4,225. That year was also the first time CIAA teams stayed in local hotels rather than in dorms. But Greensboro and the South remained segregated. The few hotels that did allow black guests instituted policies like trying to limit how may people could gather in a room at a time or the counting of towels at checkout. “They were afraid of us,” said Vaughn, who led Elizabeth City to 502 wins in an illustrious career that spanned from the early 1950s to 1986 and who was often involved in negotiations for the tournament sites. “They had never seen that many black people at one time.”
The Tournament stayed in Greensboro just one year as the Coliseum had booked a circus for the dates the following year. Gaines’s squad, with Cleo Hill as the tourney’s MVP, won the 1960 tournament and Gaines was instrumental in moving it to Winston-Salem’s War Memorial Coliseum for the next three years, “out of desperation,” said Vaughn. The Tournament returned to the Greensboro Coliseum in 1964 and began a 12-year run, all on one-year contracts.
“We didn’t know from one year to the next where we were going,” said Vaughn. “That was the nature of the situation we were in.”
The Greensboro run, the longest in CIAA history, began just before the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, which among other things outlawed segregation in public accommodations including restaurants and hotels. With this new openness, Greensboro and its Coliseum in February became ‘a place to be.’ The Tournament became a happening. The crowds increased and the basketball got even better.
In 1965, James "Hook Shot" Grant of Norfolk State, a school that had joined the CIAA three years earlier, put on a display that’s still talked about by those old enough to have witnessed it. He scored 38 points, mostly on the shot for which he earned his nickname, as the Spartans beat Irvin’s hometown favorite A&T Aggies, 100-87. "He shoots that shot from anywhere and doesn’t bank it," said Ernie Fears, then Norfolk State’s head coach to the Greensboro Record. A record crowd of 7,308 fans packed the Coliseum for that final.
Your Call
During the Greensboro-Winston-Salem run, the CIAA and its Tournament made legends of players like Hill, Theodore Blount, and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe of Winston-Salem State. Richard "Pee Wee" Kirkland and Bobby Dandridge of Norfolk State became playground and professional stars as did players like Mike Gale of Elizabeth City and Maurice McHeartley of A&T. CIAA rosters were dotted with players from Philadelphia like Monroe, from New Jersey like Hill and Blount, and from New York, like Kirkland. The CIAA had a reputation that extended all along the East coast.
But in the late 60s, with the conference bulging at the seams with 18 schools, there was a movement afoot for some of the larger schools to break away and form their own conference. In 1971, that movement resulted in the formation of the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference and the defection from the CIAA of A&T, Morgan State, Maryland State (now Maryland-Eastern Shore), Howard, North Carolina Central and Delaware State. More importantly for the CIAA Tournament, after 1976 the Greensboro Coliseum decided it did not want to renew the Tournament’s contract to play there.
The Payoff
It is said and believed by many that so-called integration in America was responsible for the disintegration of many institutions in the black community. Not so the CIAA Tournament. It has endured and prospered in spite of integration and many other challenges along the way. Treasured schools have departed and more are threatening to do so. And despite the fact that the CIAA gets nothing like the talent it did 60 or even 40 years ago, it continues to rise. But it has never been just a basketball tournament. The CIAA Tournament is a social event where the accomplishments of black people are celebrated. It represents a culture of achievement that has always been and likely will always be. It’s what sets it apart from others. And it owes its success to that history.