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.”
