Black college track invitational set
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
As many as 36 black college track teams are expected to line up next weekend (Feb. 8-9) for the first annual Historically Black College Invitational Track and Field meet in Landover, Md.
The brainchild of former North Carolina Central sprinter, Tomel "Doc" Burke, now a noted USA Track and Field official and meet director, took shape last year while Burke was working the NCAA championships in North Carolina.
There, he was surrounded
by, among others, his former coach at NCCU, Dr. Leroy Walker, the
legendary Benedict graduate who went on to become head coach of
the U.S. Olympic Track team, chancellor at NCCU and eventually to head
the United States Olympic Committee during the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.
Also there was George Williams, the highly successful head track coach who has won 24 national titles and produced countless all-Americans at St. Augustine's College. Williams had recently been named head track and field coach for the U.S. Olympic team for the 2004 Summer games in Athens, Greece.
"I just said to them that there are a lot of black athletes at (predominantly) white schools but black college athletes still seem to make their mark," Burke remembered. "I said 'why don't we all get together and have a showcase for the black college athletes. They certainly have the talent, but they don't get the publicity.' That really says something for the black college coaches."
Thus, the idea was planted for the Invitational. Eight months later it's about to become a reality.
Burke, an early 1960s star for Walker at NCCU where he ran the 100, 200 and 400-yard dashes, now resides in Washington, D.C. He worked diligently on the idea and was able to secure the sprawling Wayne Curry Sports and Learning Complex in Landover for the event. It is the same place that will host the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference indoor championships two weeks later. The facility includes a state-of-the-art 200-meter track and has seating for 4,000.
Through his work as an official and his numerous contacts in the sport Burke has cultivated relationships with most of the black college head track and field coaches, and because of that has received commitments from a host of the schools to attend.
That number includes six from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, eight from the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference, six from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as well as schools from the Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and several independents.
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association schools were planning to attend but their indoor championships are scheduled on Feb. 9 at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va.
Burke says he's working on a companion outdoor meet that he hopes to debut in 2004.
He sees the meets as a way to honor Dr. Walker, "the main man behind me," and the other black college athletes and coaches who have made their mark in track and field.
"Dr. Walker, (former Tennessee State and Olympic head track coach) Ed Temple and George Williams set the precedents for success," said Burke. "We're just trying to follow in their footsteps."
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