Black College Sports Review esse
The ME AC T
By DAVID BULLA
. Revelw Staff Writer
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's
honeymoon with
Philadelphia apparently is over.
Commissioner Ken Free said the
conference is open to other proposals
for next year's post-season basketball
tournament, although he did not completely
rule out the possibility that the
league would return to Philadelphia
for a third year. The MEAC has been
there the last two years, but it had trouble
filling first the Palestra and then
the seldom-used Civic Center. The latter
hadn't beeiTopen for six years and
once housed the old Philadelphia Warriors
of the National Basketball
Association. It didn't even have a
wooden basketball floor and one had
* to be shipped in from the Nassau Coliseum
in Lone Island. N.Y.
The conference faced two sources of
competition in Philadelphia: the
NBA's 76ers and the city high school
tournament. Trying to fill either the
9,000-seat Palestra or the 10,500-seat
Civic Center was a chore against such
competition. Also, media questioned
the conference's credibility after the attendance
at March's title game between
North Carolina A&T and Howard was
announced at 8,500 in a half-filled
Civic Center.
Some Philadelphians have suggested
that the MEAC and the group that
brought the tourney to the city ought
to try a smaller arena like Temple's
4,500-seat McGonigle Hall, located in
the heart of a black neighborhood.
That might bring back the raucous atmosphere
that was the tourney's
trademark in its early days.
Moreover, there were rumors that at
least one Philadelphia business wasn't
? . .? mm. A m
very nappy witn tne eigtit-scnooi conference.
One hotel reportedly was
upset with a school that procrastinated
' on its bill payment in 1985.
Whatever the situation in
Philadelphia, it is likely the MEAC
Tournament will be elsewhere next
year. An attractive alternative site is
the Greensboro, N.C., Coliseum,
which hosted the tournament in
1976-79 and '83-84.
"The whole problem with
Philadelphia was trying to sell the tournament
with no conference school
located there," North Carolina AAT
Athletic flirector Orby Moss. "It's like
. - asking Temple or the University of
Pennsylvania to come to the
Greensboro Coliseum and expect them
to sell a lot of tickets."
Moss said he prefers an on-campus
site for the tournament until the conference
can start to make money on it.
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Howard's Fred Hill turns the corner
Grlffls. But the M AC Tournamc
Philadelphia (photo by Brian BranchAn
on-campus facility would cost less
and would ensure better ticket sales.
Free refused comment on the subject
until after the MEAC Spring Meetings
in Ifltg Mav at Pir>?hnrgt M r
A&T Pays Off Debt
At a time when most black college
athletic departments are facing the
depths of financial crises, North
Carolina A&T is about to pay off a
debt that once surpassed $300,000.
The Aggies, given five years by the
state of North Carolina to pay off the
debt back in 1982, will complete payment^ttheend
6r June, three' consecutive
years in the black led to A&T's
beating its 1987 deadline.
??r"A lot of the credit for eradicating
the debt goes to the men's basketball
team," Athletic Director Orby Moss
said. "With them going to five straight
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against A&T's pesky, 5-8 Thomas
nt hasn't turned the corner In
Price).
NCAAs, that's created a windfall of
income for the athletic department."
Moss said cuts were minimal, but
primarily came in non-revenue sports.
In addition to the basketball windfalls
that came with NCAA appearance
money, the maintenance of a financial
monitoring system was critical to
diminishing the debt. Each expenditure
has faced a three-part scrutiny.
"Chancellor^ (Edward' B.) Fort
established the financial monitoring
vatftn th* VMr T om'v^W " eoirt
aivia ?h? j ww'wiw wesevw^ef ?**w
Moss, who came to A&T from the
University of the District of Columbia.
'They paid about $25,000 on the debt
the year before I arrived and it was
merely incumbent upon me to follow
the system.",
When Moss anived ig Greensboro,
the Aggie football program, the
athletic program's biggest spender, was
in a shambles. But things have gradually
turned around under Coach Mo
i i f. i i i i *. ? i ? . ?.?. n* \ * . .
>r a home
Forte, whose team went 6-5 last year.
That was*A&T's first winning record
since 1981. Football ticket sales are expected
to increase in the fall. In recent
years, ticket sales have paid for only 50
percent of the $300,000 it takes to run
the football program.
With a surplus of money expected
next year, the Aggie AD hopes to turn
his attention to upgrading the athletic
program. Among the improvements
would be increased scholarships for
non-revenue sports, a new wooden
floor in Corbett Sports Center and the
installation of lights at Aggie Stadium.
Smith Tennis
Johnson C. Smith's tennis program
is making a racket in the CIAA again.
Hampton University has dominated
the rest of the conference, having won
seven titles in a row and 15 of the last
19. But Smith, which last won the
CIAA crown in 1968, has served notice
that the Golden Bulls are not far
behind, losing to the Pirates 6-3 in the
CIAA championship match at Hampton,
Va., last month.
Like Hampton's Robert F. Screen,
JCSU Coach William Madrey was relying
on imported talent to post a 27-5
record and a No. 10 ranking in the
NCAA Division II poll. Three of the
losses were to Division I programs and
the other two to Hampton.
Three of Madrey's top six are from
Nigeria. Freshman Muritala Ajibade
hflc nlnviv) Na 1 fnr tUm D..11.
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Ajibade is a former national juniors
champion in Nigeria ana currently
ranks third there.
Innocent Modika plays No. 2 and
Yakubn Suleiman is No. 4.
The Golden Bulls' other singles
players are also foreigners, including
No. 3 Howard Rankin of Montego
Bay, Jamaica, No. 5 Koray Ozturkler
of Ankara, Turkey, and John Hattersly
of Sheffield, England.
Ajibade (with a 19-3 personal
record), Modika (18-4) and Suleiman
(17-5) all competed in the NCAA Division
II Tennis Championships at
California State Northridge May
12-18.
Alcorn Hires Danzy
Theo Daijf, an assistant coach at
Alcorn State, was named football
coach an^athletic director at the
school May
Danzy^ replaces Marino
"Godfath#**fcasem, who will become
athletic director at Southern University
Please See Page 12
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