Reflections: Our Legacy...

North Carolina A&T Aggies earn MEAC title with win at Coppin State

Coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs has lead the Aggies to their third straight MEAC regular-season crown.

BALTIMORE, MD -- Senior guard TaWuana "Tweet" Cook scored a career-high 33 points as N.C. A&T overpowered Coppin State 72-53 on Saturday to clinch the MEAC regular-season women's basketball crown for the third consecutive season. The Aggies also won three straight regular-season titles from 1987-1990. "I know people picked us to win it, but we were hearing a lot through the grapevine that people thought we were vulnerable," said Patricia Cage-Bibbs, A&T's coach. "People really didn't believe we could pull this off because we didn't have our big guns coming back.

"I treasure all three titles, but I appreciate this one a little more because we've gone through a lot as a team this year. But the ladies hung tough and we got it done." The Aggies (20-8, 13-1) will open the MEAC tournament as the No. 1 seed March 10 when they face the No. 8 or No. 9 seed at 12:30 p.m. at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem.

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Former NSU men's coach Mitchell dies at 74

Lucias T. Mitchell, who coached Norfolk State's men's basketball team after winning three national championships at Kentucky State, died Tuesday night after a lengthy illness. He was 74 and a graduate of Jackson State University. An important figure in college basketball in the 1970s at Kentucky State, Mitchell didn't find the same success at Norfolk State. Despite winning 61 games in three seasons, he was replaced in 1981. He never coached again.

Mitchell remained with the school until retiring in 2007 as a professor of health and safety and director of driver education. Until recently, he frequently could be found at local college games, where he assessed talent for the NBA.

Kentucky State's three straight Division II NAIA championships put Mitchell and the school on the basketball map. Two of Mitchell's players - Elmore Smith and Travis Grant - became first-round NBA draft picks, a rarity for Division II players. At Alabama State, Kentucky State and NSU, Mitchell compiled a 325-103 record, a .759 winning percentage, making him the sixth winningest coach in NCAA Division II history.

In 2008, Kentucky State invited Mitchell for a ceremony in which the school named the basketball court after its all-time winningest coach. Mitchell was 1 of 3 coaches in college history to win three straight national titles, the others being UCLA's John Wooden and John McLendon of Tennessee State. "I've had a load of great memories in my career," he said before being honored by Kentucky State, "and I put this right on the top." Mitchell did not feel as warmly received at Norfolk State in 1978. "I probably shouldn't have come," Mitchell said years later. "They weren't ready for me."

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Intensity high for Southern Jaguars football practices

On Friday morning, as the first session of Southern’s spring football practice began, a walk-on got his gear and reported for duty, and he cautiously approached the field at Mumford Stadium, searching for his new position coach. Defensive coordinator O’Neill Gilbert told the player to sprint until he found the right spot. Why? Because at SU, under new coach Stump Mitchell, players won’t walk anywhere.

“I think they’re all getting an earful on the offensive side,” Mitchell said. “They’re probably all tired of me. But that’s the way it is because I’m the one installing the offense. I know what I want to see, and they’re still learning. But we’re not going to set (ourselves) up for mediocrity just because they don’t know.” Of course, the new-sheriff-in-town routine is nothing new when programs make a coaching change, but at Southern, under Mitchell, that notion has some meat to it. Monday morning, one veteran player showed up late for the team’s 5:30 a.m. practice. At the end, while the rest of the players returned to the field house, the late comer was treated to a series of bear crawls and barrel rolls.

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Black Athletes from North Carolina Transformed Sports

Althea Gibson was a trailblazing athlete who became the first African American to win championships at Grand Slam tournaments such as Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Doubles and the United States Open in the late 1950s. Gibson had a scintillating amateur career in spite of segregated offerings earlier in the decade. She won 56 singles and doubles titles during her amateur career in the 1950s before gaining international and national acclaim for her athletic prowess on the professional level in tennis. Gibson was a 1953 graduate of Florida A&M University.

North Carolina has long been fertile ground for pioneering African-Americans to make their mark in sports. As Black History Month continues and the CIAA Tournament kicks into high gear at Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena, we take a look at 10 of these influential figures - athletes, coaches and administrators who were either born in North Carolina or arrived in the state later in life.

They share one characteristic: An influence on American sports and society that wasn't confined to North Carolina's borders, often reaching far beyond. Three of the 10 have direct ties to the CIAA: Winston-Salem State's Clarence "Big House" Gaines, N.C. Central's John McLendon and Dr. LeRoy Walker. Gaines, providing scholarships to players in a time when that advantage was rare for black athletes, guided Winston-Salem State to the 1967 NCAA Division II national championship - a first for a predominately black school.



Meadow "Meadowlark" Lemon is a professional basketball player, actor and minister. For 22 years, Lemon was known as the "Clown Prince" of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. He played in more than 16,000 games for the Globetrotters and is a 2003 inductee of the NBA Basketball Hall of Fame and received the NBA Lifetime Achievement – John Bunn Award in 2000. He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and attended Florida A&M University. A born-again Christian, Lemon became an ordained minister in 1986 and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Vision International University in Ramona, CA in 1998. He currently has his own comedic basketball team, the Meadowlark Lemon’s Harlem All Stars™

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Winston-Salem Rams flatten by Florida A&M Rattlers

Winston-Salem State took time on Saturday afternoon to honor the school's last two CIAA title teams in 1999 and 2000. Turns out, it could have used some of those players after falling flat against Florida A&M yesterday at the Gaines Center.

The Rams wound up losing 75-61, and had no answers for the Rattlers' effective zone. "We were just flat," said Coach Bobby Collins of the Rams. Perhaps suffering a hangover from last Monday's exciting victory over N.C. A&T in Greensboro the Rams never showed the same sense of urgency. Leading scorers Paul Davis and Brian Fisher, who were both averaging 11 points a game, combined for just seven points and eight turnovers and were non factors throughout.

The Rattlers (8-20) defended the Rams (11-16) with a man-to-man starting out but once the Rams ran to a 10-point lead Coach Eugene Harris switched to a zone. The Rams were never the same, and Harris stayed with the zone the rest of the way. "We couldn't penetrate the zone like you are supposed to do," said guard Lamar Monger. "We couldn't get the ball down low to Paul and it was just tough to get through it."

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SU Coach Mitchell's Contract Approved by Board

Southern University football coach Lyvonia “Stump” Mitchell will be paid the same salary as his predecessor, Pete Richardson. Mitchell got a three-year contract at $200,000 per season with a fourth year as a mutual option, Southern Athletic Director Greg LaFleur said Wednesday. Richardson, who spent 17 years as Southern’s coach, was paid $200,000 for his final seasons. He retired after last season and was replaced by Mitchell, a former Washington Redskins assistant coach, in January.

Mitchell will have $400,000 available to pay his assistant coaches, LaFleur said. Richardson had $335,000 to spread among six assistant coaches last season. An extra $15,000 one-time payment to Mitchell was added for moving expenses and incentives, such as $10,000 bonus for winning the Bayou Classic and an identical $10,000 bonus for winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship. The contract also offers another $10,000 annual bonus for having a 75 percent graduation rate among football players. The Southern University Board of Supervisors on Friday officially approved the three-year contract for Mitchell, the former Washington Redskins assistant coach.

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