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CIAA Conference
to be Inducted into the National Black Sports
and Entertainment Hall of Fame
August 30, 2005
NEW YORK CITY --- The Central Intercollegiate
Athletic Association is being inducted into the National Black
Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame tonight at the NBSEHF
Gala Awards Ceremony at The Marion Anderson Theatre at Aaron
Davis Hall, in Harlem. The conference will join other organizational
inductees from past years such as the Harlem Globetrotters
and Don Haskin’s Texas Western College team that won
the 1966 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship.
Past sports category inductees include Muhammad Ali, Pele,
Walter Payton and CIAA legends Earl “The Pearl” Monroe
and Pee Wee Kirkland. This year joining the CIAA as inductees
will be Tommy Hilfiger, John Chaney, Lou Carneseca, Charlie
Sifford, Luther Vandross (posthumously) and Jack Johnson (posthumously),
among others. Each year, six in the field of sports and six
in the entertainment industry are inducted into the NBSE Hall
of Fame.
“This is a tremendous honor for the conference to be
recognized as the league that sets the standard among Historically
Black College and University athletic conferences,” said
CIAA Commissioner Leon Kerry, who will attend the ceremony. “For
93 years the CIAA has strived to create educational and athletic
opportunities for young people. We take pride in our success
and very much appreciate the recognition. Everyone in the CIAA
Family should take pride in this honor.”
Additionally, presentations will include the Paul Robeson
Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing the outstanding contributions
individuals have made in the world of sports and entertainment.
This year’s recipients include actor and activist Danny
Glover; pioneering publishing mogul, John H. Johnson; and music
genius, Stevie Wonder. Special Tribute Awards will be given
to Tuskegee Airmen Lee Archer, Dr. Roscoe Brown and the Hon.
Percy Sutton.
The mission of the NBSEHF is to highlight and honor the vast
contributions of extraordinary persons or groups of African
ancestry in the fields of sports and entertainment, expanding
that vision to include persons on non-African descent who have
contributed in special ways to promoting and advancing people
of color in fields of sports and entertainment.
The CIAA, which hosts the Annual CIAA Men’s and Women’s
Basketball Tournament, is being recognized as the leader in
Historically Black College and University athletics with the
tournament as its marquee event. The CIAA Tournament has grown
from a small $500-budget tournament in Turner Arena in Washington,
D.C., into the third largest college conference basketball
tournament in the country with attendance of 110,000 in 2005
and an economic impact of more than $12 million, annually.
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