Written by Steven Gaither, HBCU Gameday
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) as we know it today would not exist without the honorable efforts of many men and women. But it might not exist at all in the present if not for the work of former commissioner Ken Free.
The Greensboro, N.C., native first made his mark on the baseball diamond, playing semi-pro at the age of 15 before joining the Army and eventually the Raleigh Tigers of the Negro League where he made the all-star game.
A graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, Free was working as the director of a recreation center in Windsor, N.C., when he was selected to become the first-ever full-time commissioner for the seven-year old MEAC. In that seat, Free laid the foundation for much of how the conference looks today, and his work included the expansion of opportunities for competition and championships for female student-athletes.
While the job was wrought with great opportunity, it also had its challenges. When Free took the job, only a handful of schools met the NCAA standards of Division I status. Several of them did not, and a few of them decided to leave the conference instead of comply, which meant Free had to do a lot with a little. There were times when he ran the basketball tournament and then stuck around to sweep the floor.
“There was no full-time staff and very little money for the job,” Free told the Black College Sports Page in 1996. “The challenge was to build a staff, raise funds, unify the conference, comply with NCAA rules and approve upon the image of the conference.”
Free immediately began working on plans for MEAC expansion. Over the next two years, the conference added Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman. Those moves helped solidify the MEAC as a Div. I conference, and in 1980, helped it secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Tournament.
Two years later, the MEAC secured an automatic bid to the Division I-AA football playoffs.
The 1980s were another decade of both opportunity and challenges that Free and his staff helped navigate against. While several schools grappled with the financial realities of being Div. I members, Free and his small staff navigated the waters, re-admitting institutions that had parted ways and adding a new institution in Coppin State. Free also moved the conference office from Durham to Greensboro.
Free is also credited with the concept of the Freedom Bowl — an All-Star showcase that pitted top prospects from the MEAC and CIAA against the top prospects from the SWAC and SIAC. Free would break more ground later in the decade, as he became the first African-American named to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.
This was particularly important as even after the automatic bid was awarded to the MEAC, it and other conferences made up of smaller schools were under constant threat of having that bid taken away. Free was a voice for those who would not have otherwise had one.
The 1990s would see the birth of the Heritage Bowl game between the MEAC and the SWAC, as well as the addition of both Hampton University and Norfolk State prior to Free’s time at the conference coming to an end. When he left in 1996, the conference had grown from seven schools to 10 and the budget from $80,000 (including his salary) to $500,000.
Free was also instrumental in the advancement of opportunities for women’s sports, as during his tenure, the MEAC established championships in women’s basketball (1978), women’s outdoor track & field (1980), women’s indoor track & field (1981), women’s cross country (1980), volleyball (1984), women’s tennis (1986) and softball (1993).
Much of the MEAC’s championship structure today owes its existence to Free’s leadership.
“It was an opportunity to create something — to work on an idea,” Free said of taking on the challenge of heading the MEAC. “It’s the story of my life.”
Free passed away in December 2021, but his legacy and imprint on the MEAC in particular and intercollegiate sports will continue to live on from Dover, Del. to Orangeburg, S.C. and beyond.