HBCU schools and universities have garnered a great deal of interest over the last few years, becoming recipients of both financial and athletic attention. On Thursday, Morgan State joined the party by announcing the revival of their long-dormant wrestling program.
After a 24-year hiatus, wrestling is back at Morgan State thanks to a $2.7 million gift from HBCU Wrestling, which partnered with billionaire philanthropist Mike Novogratz to bring wrestling to HBCU campuses.
The first stop was in Baltimore at Morgan State, which had been working with Beat the Streets, a nonprofit created to bring the lessons learned through wrestling to urban communities.
“The purpose behind this donation is to create access and equity which will serve to further diversify the sport of wrestling by providing opportunities for student-athletes that do not currently exist,” said Edward Scott, Ph.D., vice president and director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Morgan. “We are extremely grateful to Mike Novogratz and HBCU Wrestling for this tremendous contribution to Morgan State University Athletics. This gift is the largest in Morgan athletics history and believed to be one of the largest donations to any HBCU athletics program from a private donor.”
According to the university’s release, the gift will fund wrestling at Morgan and will support up to nine scholarships annually.
Morgan’s wrestling program began in the 1950s and dominated the next two decades, winning CIAA titles in 1963, 1964 and 1965.
In 1975, legendary Bears coach James Phillips helmed the program and drove it to even more success.
During his two-decade-long tenure, the team won 13 MEAC titles, produced four national champions and more than 75 All-Americans, and coach Phillips was named MEAC Coach of the Year 12 times.
Unfortunately, the program was disbanded after the 1996-97 season due to a lack of resources.
Now with this generous donation, Morgan will revive their once-thriving program and resurrect a sport with a rich Black history, particularly at the NCAA level.
In addition, it adds to the recent success of Black wrestlers from this summer’s Olympic Games where Gable Steveson and Tamyra Mensah-Stock won Olympic gold. Through her win in Tokyo, Mensah-Stock became the first African American female wrestler to become an Olympic champion.
The Games extended the success Black wrestlers had at the 2021 NCAA Wrestling Championships, where five Black wrestlers were crowned champions (Roman Bravo-Young of Penn State at 133 lbs., David Carr of Iowa St. at 157 lbs., Carter Starocci of Penn State at 174 lbs., Aaron Brooks of Penn State at 184 lbs. and Gable Stevenson of Minnesota at 285 lbs.).
“Morgan as an institution is predicated on expanding opportunities, promoting equity and creating access, and by way of this generous gift, we will be able to resurrect a program that opened the door for so many young men to bask in the promise and experience the magic of education,” said David K. Wilson, president of Morgan.
Wrestling opened the door to opportunity for many Black wrestlers, including Kenny Monday (the first African American wrestler to win Olympic Gold for Team USA) and Toccara Montgomery, the first Black woman to medal in the World Championships and the first Black wrestler on the 2004 U.S. women’s Olympic team in Athens.
With the program’s resurrection, Morgan State becomes the sole HBCU school to field a team in the sport.
And if history is any indication, they just might produce the next Jordan Burroughs in time for the 2024 Games.
