They may have back-doored their athletic director into position, but perhaps it worked out for the best. The Howard Bison men’s basketball team, 5-14 overall with an abysmal 11 losses by 15 points or more, is 4-1 in the MEAC and just one game out of first place behind Morgan State.
I know; hard to believe.
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Controversial Vice Provost of Student Affairs Charles Gibbs has taken a position as the Howard University Director of Athletics. But if you aren’t a regular visitor to the staff directory on the Howard University athletics website, you would have never known about it; the university has yet to announce the appointment.
Yep. The same Charles Gibbs who was protested on campus four months ago amid concerns about his leadership over financial aid, student services, and labor issues with campus employees.
No black college sports fan would tell you that Howard University athletics is in good shape. The facilities are below those of their conference counterparts, their money-making programs are among the least respected in Division I, and apathy towards the program appears to be growing by the season.
So how do you go about fixing it? It has become increasingly clear that university administration will take no active role in building athletics, so the first thing that needs to happen is a meeting of the minds among influential alumni. If the Bison faithful can commit to taking some action, I’m certain that HU could and would be a national player in FCS football and Division I basketball in a matter of years.
Here’s five things I believe they could start with.
Courtesy of Onnidan, check out the attendance numbers for the 2009 black college football season. I won’t list them all, but I will point out some interesting highlights from the listing.
Courtesy of the Mid Majority, (which is required reading if you love college basketball) here’s Howard Bison head coach Gil Jackson in his white tee at the Glenn Wilkes Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla.
I’ve asked this question over the years, partly because Morgan’s homecoming looks like a Fourth of July cookout compared to Howard’s, but mostly because the Bison have been that bad for that long. They lost homecoming this weekend to North Carolina A&T, but I’m guessing nobody cared about that as much as Wale’ shutting down the quad.
Does it matter that it’s almost guaranteed that Howard will lose homecoming? Are the parties, atmosphere and celebrations that intriguing that the game doesn’t matter? Maybe it’s just me, but when you lose homecoming, it seems that it deflates some of the fun out of the weekend.
Not a lot, mind you; the alcohol ensures that you’ll have a weekend of fun and a month of regrets following it. But I do wonder about Howard particularly, because the Howard homecoming is, without exaggeration, the homecoming for black America. And if Howard’s athletic aura is bad enough that people don’t go to the game or care if they blow win, is black America missing out on something within such a nationalistic social event?
I root for everybody to win at homecoming, but if my Bison family doesn’t care about it, then I guess it’s a hope I should relinquish as well.
They invited everybody back for this game. Celebrity alumni, distinguished graduates, everyone was to be on hand for a Hoya football party. They hand picked the Howard Bison, fully expecting the good times to roll all throughout Northwest D.C. following the dismantling of the Mecca, or the gridiron representation of such.
And then, the unexpected happened. The new stadium, the anticipation, all of it meant nothing against a Bison team with something to prove. HU walked in without a win, and walked out with the respect of Diamond City, befitting of their 14-11 win against the equally-dismal Hoyas.
Not sure when this release was formally posted, but Dwight Datcher will resign from his position as Director of Athletics at Howard University effective tomorrow.
Joseph Bell will be named interim athletic director, and the university hopes to replace Datcher permanently by January 1, 2010.
I’m sure the emails will fly in, but if you have any particular insight, the address is jarrett-at-hbcusportsblog-dot-com. I don’t know any of the details, but the Mecca’s mediocrity as a sports program has to fall squarely on Datcher’s shoulders. Football and basketball have been at the bottom of the standings for a number of years, and despite significant revenues from the Bison faithful, facilities were well behind institutional peers in the MEAC.
It will be interesting to see how the search for the new AD goes over the next five months. Will they go for a national name from a power conference? Will they seek out a member of black college sports’ old guard?
Or will they seek out a young, energetic, marketing-minded person, who can relate to the media and the people across a number of venues?
In the days to come, many tales of Steve McNair’s greatness at Alcorn State will re-emerge and remind people of his great career as an Alcorn State Brave. In the meantime, all my D.C. folks will appreciate this trip back in time to visit McNair’s SWAC days courtesy of George Michael and the Sports Machine.
Oh yeah, there is a Jay Walker sighting as well.
We’ve celebrated those institutions demonstrating academic improvement, and now it’s time to call out those institutions with athletes not getting it done in the classroom. The following is the list of black colleges not meeting the standard of academic proficiency in keeping with the NCAA’s academic progress rate (APR).
The formula is based on academic eligibility of student athletes, retention, and graduation rate, along with other factors. Below are the institutions cited for poor performance, and any penalties assigned.
