Amazing Mr. MEAC is bustin' a move, evoking smiles

Dancing 68-year-old performed on sidelines for years without title.

Mr. MEAC wants people to do a double-take when he drops into a crouch, then reaches around to grab his coat collar and "pull" himself back up. "It looks like you are pulling yourself right up with your hand," said Al Ford, "Mr. MEAC" to the people who watch him dance and move to the rhythms of James Brown and others during games of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

Ford, 68, of Georgetown, S.C., was in Winston-Salem for the MEAC Tournament at Joel Coliseum, which ended yesterday. Ford's been dancing ever since he was a kid. But he's been called Mr. MEAC for only the past three or four years, after someone with the conference noticed him dancing on the sidelines.

I was doing the James Brown, and she came and took my coat and draped it over me like they would for James Brown when he walked offstage," Ford said. "They asked me if I wanted to be Mr. MEAC." He did. Ford likes to change suits during the tournament to keep things fresh. He went through eight different suits on Friday, when he danced during four semifinal men's and women's tournament games.

It's not a paid job. "Oh, no no no, this is an honor," he said. "I went to a MEAC school. It is an honor to represent the MEAC colleges. I like to dance. I like to entertain. I like to dress and it gives me an outlet. They gave me a card and I can attend any MEAC school athletic function."

Although Ford spent a year playing basketball at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in 1961, he finished his schooling in New York and spent about 25 years there working as an auditor. Ford came back south, owned a McDonald's Restaurant franchise in Moncks Corner, S.C., and also managed a Bojangles' in Georgetown from 1995 to 2003, when he retired.

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