Hampton University

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Zakhyia is her name. She liked it so much, she picked Zakhi for her 6-week-old son and Eneizah for her 2-year-old daughter. With names like those, the McCray family knows they stand out-at day care, at work, in the grocery store. But that's the point. "In high school, they used to call me Zuzuki to make fun of my name," said the 20-year-old McCray. "But I always told them, `You're just mad because your name is Tom, and it's the same name as six other people.' I always felt my name made me special."

BOISE, Idaho - They catch your eye as soon as they enter the gym, not just with their basketball skills, but also because of the marching band and cheerleaders. It's a show inside The Show. Not only has No. 15-seeded Hampton University captured the hearts of fans in Boise, of all places, with their stunning, 58-57 upset of second-seeded Iowa State on Thursday night in the West Regional, the Pirates are the essence of what the NCAA tournament and college athletics should be all about. It's a tale of David vs. Goliath.

Calvin W. Lowe, a top administrator at Hampton University in Virginia, has been named the president of Bowie State University. The physicist will be introduced to the campus today and begin his $165,000-a-year position in May. He is the ninth president of the historically black university in Prince George's County. Lowe, 45, takes over from Wendell L. Holloway, who became interim president shortly after Nathanael Pollard Jr. resigned in late 1998 after a dispute involving allegations of misuse of the school foundation's funds.

Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art presents "To Conserve a Legacy," an extraordinary selection of American paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and sculpture from the collections of historically black colleges and universities, beginning Saturday. Artists represented include Aaron Douglas, Arthur Dove, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz.The project, organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and the Studio Museum of Harlem, was developed to conserve, document and present more than 150 works of art owned by Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Howard University, North Carolina Central University and Tuskegee University.

What Marilyn Knight remembers most about the 1996 Summer Olympics is how little sleep she got. Knight would go to bed early to get up for her job as a licensed practical nurse at a Baltimore nursing home, only to be awakened a couple of hours later by her son, James Carter.Carter, then a recent graduate of Mervo and on his way to Hampton (Va.) University later that summer, could not contain his enthusiasm in watching Michael Johnson and Allen Johnson on television during their gold-medal performances in Atlanta.

Morgan State left little doubt which team is third best in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.The Bears (10-15, 10-7) last night locked up the third seed for the conference tournament in Richmond, Va., next week by crushing Hampton University (13-12, 10-7), 97-64. As a first-year member of the MEAC, the visitors are not eligible for the tournament.While the Bears were having a big night scoring with five players in double figures led by Tremain Byrd's 27, it was their defense that made this one a stroll.

WASHINGTON -- Call it a tale of two quarterbacks. There was Howard University sophomore Ted "Sweet Flight" White tying a school record for the second time this season with six touchdown passes. And there was Morgan State senior Otis Covington, who spent much of yesterday afternoon scraping himself off the Greene Stadium artificial surface.Call it a tale of two Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football teams heading in opposite directions. Howard (8-2, 5-1), with a 49-0 victory over Morgan, recorded its sixth straight one-sided .. decision and probably secured a New Year's Eve date with Southern in the Heritage Bowl in Atlanta.

The May issue of Emerge magazine proves once again why it is black America's premier news periodical. Taking a break from the John H. Johnson -- publisher of Ebony and Jet -- "happy news makes happy Negroes" school of journalism, Emerge devoted nearly its entire issue to the drug crisis.The main feature was a special report on an African-American woman named Kemba Smith. "Kemba's Nightmare," Emerge called its story. It focused on how this "model child" -- a student at Hampton University -- got sucked into a vortex of drug dealing and murder.

David Alexander Echols Sr., who helped establish what now is Carver Vocational-Technical High School in West Baltimore, died of cancer Saturday at the Stella Maris Hospice Unit at Mercy Medical Center. He was 95 and lived in Baltimore.Born in Atlanta, he moved to Hampton (Va.) Institute when his mother accepted a job in the residence of the school's president. In 1923, he received a certificate in automotive mechanics from the institute -- now Hampton University -- and went to work in a filling station in New Jersey.

Robert J. WeissBusiness consultantRobert J. Weiss, a business management consultant who was active in Kiwanis International, died Sunday at his home in Timonium after a heart attack. He was 60.Mr. Weiss had owned Daruma Management Inc. for about 10 years. Earlier, he had been president of ENSEC Service Corp., which provides security and janitorial services in federal buildings.The New York City native served in the Air Force in Japan in the 1950s before moving to the Baltimore area.He was a board member and a former president of the Towson Kiwanis Club, and had been chairman of the Baltimore Science Fair for many years.