HAMPTON, Virginia -- William Harvey will always be proud of Hampton University’s standing as a historically black institution.
Founders established the school three years after the Civil War to educate former slaves and train teachers. Booker T. Washington studied there. Rosa Parks worked there.
But Harvey, HU’s president since 1978, is equally proud of the university’s Proton Therapy Institute, which treats cancer patients, and its 13-story Harbour Centre building that includes a $5 million weather antenna.
“The fact that we’re an HBCU is wonderful,” Harvey said. “But we happen to be an HBCU that’s one of the best modest-sized institutions in the entire country.”
Harvey has never backed away from taking a bold step. And that has extended to athletics.
In what generated some controversy in the HBCU world, Hampton announced in December it would join the Big South Conference after 23 years in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, which is comprised entirely of HBCUs. The move became official on July 1.
In the Big South, Hampton is the only institution that is not predominantly white. It is also one of two HBCUs in Division I that does not belong to either the MEAC or Southwestern Athletic Conference. Tennessee State, in the Ohio Valley Conference, is the other.
“We’re always going to be an HBCU,” HU athletic director Eugene Marshall said. “That goes without saying. But we wanted to be in the cutting edge of where conference realignment is.”
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