MEAC

Veteran college athletics administrator Lonza Hardy, Jr., joined the MEAC in September 2018 to serve as media relations and research consultant. in this post, Hardy has assisted the MEAC in such projects as the creation of sport-by-sport records books, the implementation of the MEAC Digital Network and other long-term projects designed to preserve and highlight the history of both the conference and HBCU athletics as a whole.

After serving as sports information director at Albany State from 1978-80, Hardy spent nearly four decades within the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), making his mark in the realm of sports information as well as athletics administration. As sports information director of Alcorn State (1980-86) and Southern (1986-89), Hardy was recognized as the league’s Sports Information Director of the Year four times in the decade.

From there, Hardy took over a similar role within the league office, eventually becoming the SWAC's first assistant commissioner (1995) and associate commissioner (1998) in the history of the conference headquarters.

Hardy then became Director of Athletics at Mississippi Valley State University in 2001, and during his six-year tenure, the Delta Devils and Devilettes won five conference titles in softball, women’s soccer and men’s basketball.

After a similar tenure of success at Hampton University from 2007-11, Hardy returned to the SWAC as Director of Athletics at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where Hardy restructured the school’s compliance and academic services and ultimately oversaw a significant increase in student-athlete graduation rates as well as athletics fundraising.

UAPB also won the 2012 SWAC Football Championship under Hardy’s leadership.

Hardy, a 1978 graduate of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame in December 2018.