As an NCAA champion at Oklahoma State and a three-time Olympian who won gold and silver medals, Kenny Monday didn’t experience much losing on the wrestling mat. Tastes of defeat still don’t agree with him.
But the Hall of Famer has to swallow some – for now – as head coach at Morgan State, the nation’s only HBCU with a Division I wrestling program. The Bears dropped home matches against Hofstra and Bloomsburg last week, falling to 1-9 in their first season after a 25-year hiatus. Monday prepared himself for such results upon accepting the job last year, aware that rebuilding programs from scratch is a heavy lift.
“Yeah, it’s a difficult, difficult thing,” Monday told theGrio via phone. “It’s hard, but it’s getting better every day. It’s just getting the administration and the university up to speed on what wrestling looks like and what it feels like, the requirements, and the recruiting process. That’s probably the biggest hurdle other than just building the team.”
The wrestling great Kenny Monday (pictured) serves as head coach of the Morgan State wrestling team. (Photo credit: Screenshot/YouTube.com/HBCUGameday)
Before dropping the sport in 1997, Morgan State was royalty among HBCU wrestling programs. According to Sports Illustrated, the Bears produced approximately 75 All-Americans, won three straight titles in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (1963-65), and won 13 titles in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Wrestling Insider News reports that Morgan produced four NCAA Division II champions and is the only HBCU to produce Division I champions (1978, 1980, 1986, and 1990). But like many HBCUs (and predominantly white institutions) over the last 30 years, Morgan put wrestling on the chopping block to save and grow other sports.
The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Wrestling Initiative wants to reverse that trend among HBCUs. With a $2.7 million donation from former Princeton wrestler and investment firm CEO Mike Novogratz, HBCUW funded the relaunch at Morgan and plans to add more schools in the near future. Programs that follow won’t find a coach more renowned than Monday, the USA’s first Black wrestler to win an Olympic gold medal.
His international experience as a wrestler and coach made him a legend throughout the sport, with celebrity status instantly putting Morgan’s nascent program on the map.
Morgan State’s wrestling team is back in action after a 25-year hiatus. (Photo credit: Screenshot/YouTube.com/Reality TV Show)
“It makes perfect sense,” HBCUW executive director Jahi Jones told The Baltimore Sun. “You have the first HBCU, and their program was dropped 25 years ago. And now it’s being coached by the first Black Olympic champion in the sport of wrestling. Just to know that this program is the first HBCU with a Division I program that will be coached by someone as high-caliber as Kenny Monday, it’s definitely a job well done, and we’re definitely excited about the future of Morgan State wrestling.”
Jones said Black men made up half the 10 Division I national champions in 2021 but fewer than 10% of Division I wrestlers. HBCUW wants to create options for high school wrestlers who wish to continue the sport at an HBCU.
Monday’s first team has roughly 30 wrestlers, about 95% of whom are freshmen. He said drawing top recruits to Morgan instead of traditional powerhouses like Penn State and Oklahoma State will take some time, and his team will take some lumps against the likes of Maryland, Pittsburgh, Navy and West Virginia — all ranked in the National Wrestling Coaches Association’s Top 25 poll.
“We’ve got a pretty stiff schedule,” he said. “My focus was to get the kids against the best competition — teams in the top 15 and top 20 – to give them an idea of what it looks like going against some of the best kids in the country.”
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But he was strategic in scheduling Morgan’s first match on campus, Nov. 20, a 53-0 victory against Marymount University. One of his wrestling buddies, head coach at a powerful Big 10 school, called and offered to fill the date. “I asked him if he’d lost his mind,” Monday said. “You think I’m going to face a school like that for my first home match? Give me three years.”
He said he’s signed a couple of nationally ranked wrestlers for next year and expects to attract more as awareness of Morgan wrestling grows. “You just don’t see a predominantly Black team on the Division I level. It’s good to have that visual. I’m proud of the journey we’re on.
”That’s my selling point to kids, letting them know it’s bigger than us,” he said. It’s historic. We’re making history.”
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