While its appearance in the Division I men's basketball tournament will be the school's first since it became eligible during the 1986-1987 season, in chess UMBC boasts four Final Four victories (2003-2006) and is seven-time champ of the prestigious Pan-American Intercollegiate competition (1996, 1998-2002 and 2005).
"Freeman's just as excited when the chess team beats Harvard," said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland. "It shows that he's as comfortable in a basketball setting as he is with scientists and students, and it's exciting to see him get so wrapped up."
UMBC similarly lauds its National Society of Black Engineers, which won the National Academic Technical Bowl for the past two years, and its team of undergraduate debaters who won the inaugural Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in 2006. Athletics has been widely supported but scarcely glorified. Supporters at lacrosse games have been known to cheer, "UMBC, We're an honors university."
That changed somewhat Saturday, when 4,000-seat RAC Arena was packed with fans in black and gold T-shirts, some with dyed hair and painted faces. Throughout the tension-filled conference final, the charismatic president shifted and squirmed in his seat. He clasped his hands together as if praying. At times, he couldn't bear to watch. When UMBC's victory was evident late, Hrabowski reared back in his seat and raised clenched fists.
"To see him having a good time at the game meant a lot," said former U.S. Sen. Joseph D. Tydings, who sat beside Hrabowski during the game. "Freeman has carried UMBC on his shoulders. What [the triumph] means is that it's going to be easier for him to raise private funds for the school, which is so vital in higher education today."
"The same way a parent wants a child to succeed, I want my students to do their best," Hrabowski explained. "And when I see them doing their best, and thriving, and I see the excitement of the crowds, parents and alumni, the energy just builds in me."
Growing up in segregated Birmingham, Ala., his family stressed education as a means to overcome hardship. His boyhood recollections of the Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed four children at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963 were included in Spike Lee's documentary about the tragedy.
He's long been passionate about what he calls "the life of the mind." He graduated with honors from Hampton Institute in Virginia with a degree in mathematics at age 19.
