Howard students make NCAA history

Howard University made history last weekend in the same manner as Fisk last year and TSU will in the future, by doing something in the athletic world no one expects or anticipates an HBCU will do. Thanks to Jordan McCreary Graham as well as students like Cheyenne Walker and Maya James, Howard is the first HBCU school to compete in figure skating.& Just as when Fisk announced it would begin fielding a gymnastics team and Tennessee State announced plans to begin a hockey program, there was nationwide curiosity and questions regarding why a Black university would even want to be involved with a sport so heavily viewed as the province of rich, entitled and mostly white athletes. There were stories in multiple mainstream newspapers and features on three major broadcast network news programs. Graham had tried to start an ice skating program at North Carolina Central, only to be told in no uncertain terms that “Black people don’t skate.” She ignored that nonsense, continued her efforts, and now Howard University has a skating team, more accurately it’s the Howard University Skating Organization. They became the first HBCU to compete at a collegiate competition last Saturday. “I don’t think it’s hit...