REPORTING FROM ... CIAA MADNESS

by Ryan McGee

Forget March Madness. Here in Charlotte, February Frenzy has been underway since Monday with the dual men's and women's CIAA tourneys.
     The CIAA, made up of ten historically black colleges and universities, has been in business since 1912 and produced the likes of Earl "The Pearl" Monroe (at Winston-Salem State he was known as "Black Jesus"), hall of fame coach Clarence "Big House" Gaines, and Fred "Curly" Neal of the Harlem Globetrotters.
     So it shouldn't have been a surprise on Thursday, the next-to-last day of Black History Month, that the CIAA tourney was chosen to host an advanced screening of the documentary film Black Magic , a four-hour epic on the history of black basketball in America that airs on ESPN March 16-17.[Ed.'s note: Normally we're against tacky plugs, but this thing is good.]
     It's narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, scored by Wynton Marsalis and by the time the lights came up in the McGlohon Theater, only a couple of blocks north of Bobcats Arena, even those in the audience who lived it couldn't believe what they'd seen.
     "Every time I watch it, I learn something new," Earl Monroe said at a post-viewing reception. "I can hardly get through it, especially when it focuses on Coach Gaines."
     Teary eyes and all, the CIAA claims that its week of hoops is the third largest crowd in collegiate sports, trailing only the ACC and Big East tourneys.
     "I don't know the official numbers," says America's smilingest mayor, Pat McCrory. "But I know they've owned downtown Charlotte for a solid week the last three years."
     What else would you expect with Curly feeding The Pearl on the break?

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