It was as shocking as it was improbable. As a result, some are calling Coppin State College's dramatic win over the University of South Carolina in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Basketball Tournament the single most significant victory in the history of sports at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

It was the first time in tournament history that a team from the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference (MEAC) had won a game. It was only the third time in tournament history that a fifteenth-seed heat a second-seed. And Coppin's one-point loss to Texas in the second round of the tournament proved the Eagles victory was no fluke. But the games were so much more than that.

"I knew it was more than just a win," Coppin State Coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell said of the 78-65 pasting of South Carolina. "I know what it symbolized and what it means for the future." Mitchell knew his squad was up against a team ranked sixth in the nation going into the tournament--a team that had beaten defending NCAA champion Kentucky twice during the season, including once on Kentucky's home court. He knew his Eagles were 17-point underdogs.

"What I liked when we won it was the poise that we showed in dismantling the sixth-ranked team before a national audience," he said. "Here was a little commuter school of 3,500 in the city of Baltimore, with nine or ten buildings. It says a lot to the country that `Here we are doing a lot with a little.' We're [considered] inferior to most people. For an inferior team to do so well says a lot for a Black college."

Even the loss to Texas was a positive, Mitchell said. "For us to come back and play the way we played again is not surprising to me, but it further showcased a tiny Black school to the nation. It promotes to the nation who we are and what we can do."

Visibility Raised

By the time Coppin played Texas, a legion of new fans--both at the Pittsburgh arena, where the game was played, and across the nation--were cheering for the Eagles. "It was good to see the total country--white, Black. Latino, Asian, everybody-rooting for a historically Black school," Mitchell said. "That in itself says a lot."