PHOTO | NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL ATHLETICS

Black college sports, long ignored by corporate-owned media, is finally getting its turn in a larger spotlight.

When The Triangle Tribune was born in 1998, one of our main goals was to give HBCU sports more coverage in areas that were lacking.

In the spring of that year, the CIAA hosted its annual general meeting at a hotel right across the street from our office. So, I decided to attend. After all, what better way to get acquainted with the people you’re going to cover, right?

When I walked into the room and told the conference staff why I was there, they looked at me like I was some homeless person off the street begging for a piece of bread.
One staffer ran to tell another one and then another. Finally, I was told I could stay but couldn’t eat any of the food. By the time I found a seat in the back in the corner, I felt the entire room staring at me. It was obvious they weren’t used to any media covering the event.

Many HBCUs during that time played second and third fiddle to predominately white conferences, both by mainstream media and sports journalists.

The prestigious gigs were the power Division I conferences, the NBA and NFL.  Too many of the journalists covering HBCU sports saw it as just a steppingstone to a promotion on another beat. And the reporters who actually enjoyed covering HBCUs and weren’t looking to go anywhere else were viewed as second class.

Even more disrespectful was how some journalists didn’t even bother to learn about the conferences or their history. I can’t tell you the number of times I sat at a table or in a press box next to a reporter who tried to pump me for information so he could write his story.

But HBCU sports information departments didn’t make it easy either back then – especially on the Division II level. I had no idea record keeping was so bad at some institutions until I asked a couple of sports information directors to help me with a series I wanted to write. They were all gung-ho at first to give their school some media coverage until I started asking for research material. Then they stopped returning my calls.

After a while, I understood the limitations HBCU SIDs had to work with, but I did not – and never will – understand why someone would throw out old media guides, and then tell you they can’t find the information you need.

But the tide started to change with the beginning of the Great Recession in 2007 and the internet steadily gaining in popularity.  Newspapers were forced to slash jobs, and sports journalism, which was seen as untouchable, became part of the casualties. Soon the demand far exceeded the supply of jobs for those major conferences.

In the meantime, veteran sports journalists like Lut Williams (Black College Sports Page), Eric Moore (onnidan.com), John Dell (The Winston-Salem Journal), Herbert White (The Charlotte Post) and other “old-timers” continued to serve an HBCU market thirsty for attention and respect. The arrival of Boxtorow.com and HBCU Gameday only served to upgrade the HBCU landscape.

Then, click! Mainstream media, desperate to stop the financial drain, finally saw the light: HBCU fans tailgate. HBCU fans travel. HBCU fans spend money. And let’s not even get started on the bands!

Now, HBCUs have become a smorgasbord for sports journalists. More games are being televised or streamed than ever before, and corporate America is finally waking up in the sponsorship department.

Covering HBCU sports is so much fun. It makes putting up with sensitive coaches who can’t take criticism (especially from a woman), alumni who think Black media should NEVER say anything negative about their school and even the occasional disrespect by the institutions we cover, all worth it.

And, thankfully, I can eat at the table now.

Bonitta Best is sports editor at The Triangle Tribune in Durham.

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