Continuing its recent trend of honoring successful alumni, Hampton University celebrated the 2023 Hall of Fame induction ceremony on March 29.
The ceremony comes on the heels of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications’ Hall of Fame service in early February and the retirement of NBA legend Rick Mahorn’s jersey in January.
The university’s Convocation Center buzzed with excitement as dapperly dressed alumni milled about on their old stomping grounds, ready to congratulate their former coaches, teammates, and friends.
A plethora of inductees were present at the event including: Douglas Palmer, the second baseman of Hampton’s final baseball team; Walter Lovett, head football coach from 1974 – 1980; James Sweat, coach of the women’s basketball team from 1981-1988; and Phyllis LaVerne Sweat, head coach for the track and field and cross-country teams, along with the head position at the World University Games in Bucharest, Romania.
Joseph Taylor, the winningest football coach in Hampton history and member of the 2019 class of the College Football Hall of Fame; the 1987-1988 women’s basketball team that won 19 straight games, finished with a 33-1 record, and won the NCAA Division II National Championship, and finally the 2000-2001 men’s basketball team, famous for upsetting the second-seeded Iowa State in the NCAA March Madness tournament.
As the Hall of Famers were announced, they all had their own walk-up music. The selections ranged from Curtis Mayfield’s Move on Up to DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win, a microcosm of the age disparity between the inductees.
“This is an event that’s long overdue,” said Hampton University’s 13th president, Darrell K. Williams. “Athletics means so much to the Hampton winning culture.”
The university supported Williams’ statement by hiring legendary broadcaster Charlie Neal to interview the inductees. Neal has worked for CBS, TNT, ESPN, and BET, and is known as the “Voice of Black College sports” due to his endeavors covering HBCU athletics.
Neal had brief discussions with the Hall of Famers, although the questions for Phyllis LaVerne Sweat were merely suggestions as she talked about what interested her. She mentioned that when she took over the head coaching role for track, she didn’t have an athletic roster.
“You can’t take a mule to a horse race,” Sweat said. “You gotta have some thoroughbreds.”
Her husband, James Sweat, was much less talkative, though he heaped praise onto the ’87-’88 women’s basketball squad for being a “team,” which he believed led to their success.
Joe Taylor verbalized a sentiment that was eluded to by the other inductees:
“I’m in six other [Hall of Fames], but this is the one.”
Though he’s apart of multiple other Halls, Taylor made it abundantly clear that the accolades were never his true goal.
“Culture has always been a ministry. It’s more to coaching that how fast you run or how hard you hit. The good Lord didn’t put you here to be a uniform rack… If you start your career with Hall of Fame being the goal, you’ll never make it.”
To close out the interview section of the program, Arthimus Howard walked onto the stage. The lone representative of the ’00-’01 men’s basketball team, Howard identified where the squad’s confidence came from, especially when playing a much higher ranked opponent in an arena hundreds of miles away from home.
“Seeing the travel [from fans], it was comfortable, we felt comfortable. The confidence trickled down from [head coach Steve Merfeld] to the rest of the team.”
Merfeld, now an assistant coach at Creighton University, appeared in a video detailing Hampton’s unexpected performance against the Cyclones, including the iconic shot with Hampton player David Johnson lifting up the coach in the air.
The ceremony concluded with an exit address from President Williams. He reiterated his goal of returning Hampton sports back to its former glory.
“As long as I’m here,” Williams said, “the athletic department will have the resources to be successful… Goal number six in our strategic plan will have to have a championship athletic program.”