As cheers went up and confetti rained down after the biggest basketball victory ever at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Freeman A. Hrabowski III stood at midcourt smiling, his face glistening with tears.
The men's basketball team had just trounced the University of Hartford in the America East Conference tournament final on Saturday, clinching UMBC's first-ever bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The team faces heavily favored Georgetown University tomorrow in Raleigh, N.C., in the opening round of what many consider the premier event in American amateur sports.
On this same court at the Retriever Activities Center on less frenzied days, Hrabowski had given numerous speeches describing himself as a "mega nerd" and emphasizing the school's academic achievements. One of the region's longest-tenured college presidents, he has gained wide recognition for helping minority students succeed in math and science at the Catonsville campus, where the chess team has long been its most celebrated.
Hrabowski, 57, has decried an emphasis on athletics over schooling, cautioned young black men to seek role models beyond sports and challenged young people of all backgrounds to get as excited about the classroom as the playing field.
But five days ago, surrounded by jubilant students who had just stormed the court as if someone had dropped a winning lottery ticket, Hrabowski could be forgiven if his beliefs about the balance of academics and athletics on a college campus had shifted just a smidgen.
"When they came to take me to the court at the end of the game, I felt like I was in a daze," said Hrabowski, president of the school since 1992. "They call me the mega-nerd on campus, and proudly so. I like math problems. But I have become a believer in the power of athletics to build spirit and transform an environment."
Those who have known Hrabowski's academic exploits relished the accomplishment. Johns Hopkins retiring president, Dr. William Brody, joked that when he heard that UMBC's basketball team had advanced to the NCAA tournament, "I thought, `My God, what's happened over there?'"
Then he added, "What they're doing is bringing in great students and great athletes together; when you get more competitive academically, the result is better athletics."
Before Saturday's win, one of the most-discussed competitions at the school has been the 2008 President's Cup, the equivalent of the Final Four of collegiate chess. UMBC will host it April 5 and 6, complete with cheerleaders, a pep rally and move-by-move commentary in the student center.
