Returning to the Gridiron, Part II
Five more making a comeback
Bonitta Best
BCSP Correspondent
The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association will have a full slate
in the football department starting in 2002. 
St. Augustine's College and Shaw
University announced earlier this year that they would be reinstating
football. An announcement last week by St. Paul's
College that it too would return to the gridiron means all 12 CIAA
teams will field teams in 2002.
St. Paul's and Shaw will play a club schedule next season. St. Aug's,
however, is going big league with a regular CIAA schedule.
But the CIAA is not the only conference making football news.
Central State, a former NAIA power, and the
University of Maryland Eastern-Shore, who as
Maryland State was a CIAA stalwart who now competes in the
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, are also reinstating
their football programs.
They are joining a growing list of black colleges which includes
Benedict, the focus of Part One of our
series, Stillman College, Edward Waters College, Paul Quinn College
and Allen University. They are among those
who have brought back the passion, pageantry and excitement of football
to campus over the last few years.
Let's look at the developmental stages of the schools in the
planning stages.
SHAW
The Bears have the powerful backing of famed attorney and
alumnus Willie E. Gary.
Gary gave Shaw $250,000 towards re-institution at the athletic banquet
last month. The check is just one of several monetary gifts Gary has given since
the summer to revitalize a program that was discontinued in 1978.
"We know it's going to cost us but we also know it's going to benefit
the school tremendously," said Gary who played football at Shaw. "We're going
to be able to bring close to 500 African American males to Shaw and that's
our goal - to bring back football as well as encourage our young black men to go
to college. It's a win, win situation."
Gary said Shaw, which is in negotiations with several high schools to
host its home games, will also have a marching band. School officials will be
making an announcement on a head coach
"within the next few weeks," said Gary.
ST. PAUL'S
St. Paul's Athletics Director Rosemary
Lewis had a cryptic response when asked if the rumor of reinstating
football was true.
"Somebody has been sleeping in our bedroom," said Lewis, laughing.
Football was one of the top priorities of new president
John K. Waddell when he was hired at the
750-student school this year.
Lewis said the Tigers will do "some form of football" in 2002.
"I don't think we'll be ready for conference games, but we'll be ready
for club," said Lewis who was hired in the Waddell administration. "Just what
it will be we will not know until we do the exploratory research and feasibility
studies over the holidays." SPC dropped football in 1986.
ST. AUGUSTINE'S
Unlike its two comrades, St. Aug's plan to surf the jumbo wave and play
a regular conference schedule. A preliminary 2002 schedule has the Falcons
meeting Fayetteville State in its first
football game since 1967.
In anticipation of reinstating football, the school held its first fall
homecoming this year in almost 40 years. President
Dianne Boardley Suber said the college needs to raise $5.5 million
to renovate and expand its existing track and field facilities to include
5,000-seat capacity, a field house, press box and restrooms.
"We are stepping out on faith, with a calculated plan," Suber said. "This
is not just about a game. Football infuses a new energy into a college campus
that reaches students, the alumni and the community."
A head coach announcement is expected soon.
CENTRAL STATE
Central State AD Teresa Check
said the University is in the "fund-raising stage" to raise $1.5 million needed
to reinstate football. CSU dropped football in 1996 as the school faced
financial difficulties that threatened its existence.
"We're not going to do much until we get that money," said Check
who stepped down as the women's basketball coach last season. "I can't give you a
time and precise date."
The board of trustees approved the plan in June.
Check said when approximately $500,000 is raised, she has permission
to hire a coach. So far, $200,000 has been collected.
Check was excited at the news of St. Aug's and Shaw's reinstatement.
(SPC had not announced its intentions at the time.) Now I know two people to call
for games," she said.
MARYLAND-E. SHORE
UMES Plan of Action
The Hawks are in an even more infantile stage than Central State. Led
by alumnus and former player Bryant C.
Mitchell, who works in the school's business department, the earliest football
will return is in five to six years, Mitchell said.
The idea began when Mitchell established a UMES Football
Reinstatement Fund in memory of former UMES coaches
Vernon 'Skip" McCain and Harold "House"
Gray, and player Terry Fidderman.
Mitchell said the funds can only be used for football and complimentary
female programs over the next 10 years. It was the Title IX mandate that was
mainly responsible for football's demise. Football was dropped in 1979.
CORRECTION: We incorrectly reported last week that Benedict's enrollment had
grown from 1,200 to 1,300 since bringing back
football. The correct enrollment number now is close to 2,900. We regret the error.
Ed.
© 2001 Azeez Communications, Inc.
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