By Roscoe Nance
The MEAC Hall of Fame's door have swung open to a quintet of inductees who have made indelible marks on the conference while helping elevate its profile on the landscape of collegiate athletics.
The inductees are:
- § Jacquay Nunnally, a record-setting receiver for Florida A&M.
- § Ira Smith, a two-time NCAA batting champion for Maryland Eastern Shore.
- § Rickey Anderson, South Carolina State's first 1,000-yard rusher.
- § Ted White, one of the most prolific passers in MEAC history as a quarterback at Howard University.
- § Ed Hill, Howard's nationally acclaimed Sports Information Director.
The 2010 Hall of Fame Class will be honored March 12 during a brunch at the MEAC Basketball Tournament at M.C. Benton, Jr. Convention Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. Tickets are available for purchase by calling 757-416-7100 by February 26, 2010. Tickets are $30 per person and $300 for a table of ten.
"A lot of athletes don't get to play in the Super Bowl,'' says Anderson, San Diego's third round pick in the 1978 NFL draft. "This is my Super Bowl. "It's a great honor to be selected to the MEAC Hall of Fame. It's a big conference with big name players. To be among them is an honor for me. I'm very proud and grateful and thankful.''
Anderson, a native of Kingsland, Ga., lives in Jacksonville, Fla., where he has been an employee at Bayer Crop Science for 29 years. He rushed for 1,195 yards as a senior in 1977 to become the first South Carolina State runner to crack the 1,000-yard mark, as the Bulldogs won their fourth consecutive MEAC championship with a 6-0 league record. Anderson was named MEAC Offensive Player of the Year and AP College Division All-American. Anderson, who played for the Bulldogs from 1974-77, still holds the South Carolina State career record with a 6.5 yards per carry average.
White was quarterback for Howard from 1995-98 and was MEAC Offensive Player of the Year as a sophomore in 1996. His 638 completions, 9,908 passing yards, 92 touchdowns, 1,169 attempts and 9,845 total yards are all conference career records. He also set MEAC single game records with 561 passing yards and eight touchdowns against Florida A&M in 1998.
"I was surprised and honored when I learned I was selected for the Hall of Fame,'' White says. "It shows God works in mysterious ways. When I was at Howard, I didn't take much for granted. When I was playing, I didn't think about all that I did at Howard. You just look at the task at hand and try to do better. I didn't think about it until I stopped playing (professionally) and I'd go back for Homecoming. People would tell me how much they enjoyed watching me play. I would take it and smile.''
White played five years in the NFL with Kansas City and Tampa Bay and four years in the CFL with Montreal. He recently joined the Southern University coaching staff as quarterback coach.
Smith led the NCAA in batting in 1989 with a .488 average and again in 1990 with a .519 average, which is No. 6 on the all-time single-season list. Smith's career .431 batting is 14th all-time for the NCAA. The Los Angeles Dodgers chose Smith in the 1991 amateur draft, and he played professionally until 1999.
"This is unexpected,'' says Smith, who lives in Inglewood, Calif., where he is athletic director at Rolling Hills Country Day School. "It's something that you wish for, but you don't expect. When I got the call, my reaction was one of joy and a bit of disbelief because it wasn't expected. There are some great athletes who played in the MEAC, and baseball is not a high profile sport in the conference like football and basketball. That makes it more special because I know I had to do some special things to get this kind of attention.''
Nunnally was a three-time All-American at Florida A&M and led the Rattlers to Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision) playoff appearances from 1997-2000. He holds the FCS freshman single game receiving record with 284 yards against North Carolina A&T in his first start as a freshman. He led Division I-AA in 1998 with 96 receptions for 1,316 yards and 12 touchdowns. Nunnally was the 1998 and 2000 Black College Player of the Year.
"Jacquay was an outstanding receiver,'' says Miles College coach Billy Joe, a MEAC Hall of Famer and Nunnally's coach at Florida A&M. "He had the ability to turn a five-yard out into a 75-yard touchdown. He was very elusive. He had great agility, and he was tough and strong. He could give you a dime and turn it into eight cents change. He could shake and bake and stick and go. If anybody is deserving of being in the MEAC Hall of Fame, it's Jacquay. He had a phenomenal career.''
Hill has been Sports Information Director at Howard since 1983 and is one of the elder statesmen among HBCU SIDs. He has worked 283 consecutive Howard football games and has not missed a game since 1984. A talented writer, his stories have appeared in USA TODAY and the NCAA News.
Hill is member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and Black College Sports Information Directors of America (BCoSIDA). He is active in the Washington, D.C., community, having coached the D.C. Warriors basketball program, which he co-founded, and he is a counselor for the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP). He received CoSIDA's Bob Kenworthy Award in 2005 for his community service. In addition he is adjunct professor at Howard, teaching a course on Sports and the Media.
"This is a very humbling experience because I have watched the MEAC growth and development and been a part of,'' Hill says. "For some people, this looks like an individual accomplishment. But as I reflect on it, so many people - not just at Howard but throughout the MEAC - coaches, players, student-athletes, reporters, custodians and student workers played a role. When you're inducted into something as prestigious as the MEAC Hall of Fame, so many people helped you get there."