CHARLOTTE, NC (January 26, 2023) — Following its annual fall meeting in 2022, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Board of Directors selected Dr. William H. Harvey as the 2023 Jimmy Jenkins
Legacy recipient.
The award is bestowed to an individual as approved by the Board who has provided an environment that supports athletic and academic excellence through educational opportunities and community involvement; focused always on the personal growth, mental wellness, and development of the student-athlete and its members.
The former Hampton University President, who served for over 44 years, will be recognized during the CIAA Hall of Fame Ceremony, which will take place on Friday, February 24, 2023, at the Baltimore Convention Center during the 2023 CIAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament.
Dr. Harvey, who served as Hampton’s president from 1978 to June 2022, practically embodies the Jimmy Jenkins Legacy Award. Dr. Harvey has overseen a lot of growth of Hampton, including, but certainly not limited to, the addition of 92 degree-granting programs, 12 doctorates, 30 new buildings, a university-owned commercial development, and the increase of the university’s endowment from $29 million to $400 million.
Athletically in Dr. Harvey’s tenure, Hampton earned over 30 CIAA championships and three national championships, including a 1988 national championship in women’s basketball, a 1989 national championship in men’s tennis, and a black college national championship in football in 1994. For three consecutive years from 1991 to 1993, Hampton won the CIAA’s C.H. Williams All-Sports Trophy. In 1996, the Pirates transitioned to NCAA Division I.
Since then, Hampton has won 86 regular season and postseason championships in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and four Big South Championships.
Dr. Harvey’s legacy is personified by the estimated 40,000 Hampton students that graduated under his leadership, the 17 Hampton administrators who have progressed to become presidents of other colleges and universities, and the countless alumni and staff who have made positive and meaningful contributions to society, such as graduates Jacqie McWilliams-Parker, Tonia Walker, and LaTaya Hilliard-Gray who were recently named CIAA Title IX Trailblazers.
Under Dr. Harvey’s guidance, Hampton has transformed from Hampton Institute, a small, black college to a world-class leader in higher education. Today, Hampton boasts a number of distinctions that set it apart from other mid-sized institutions in the nation. Students are afforded unique opportunities to engage in an equestrian program and/or to join the sailing team. Faculty are poised at the leading edge of discovery with patents on such items as a breast cancer detection device and prosthesis for artificial limbs. Hampton has Virginia’s first proton therapy cancer treatment center.
Recently, Hampton University was one of only four institutions in the nation to compete for and win the distinction of serving as a National Physics Frontier Center. In 2003, the University secured a $92 million dollar grant to launch weather satellites into orbit, making Hampton the first HBCU to be solely responsible for a major NASA mission. Also, in 2003, a $12 million contract was won by the University to provide 4.5 million textbooks and supplemental materials to African countries. Hampton University is a world-class
institution because of the vision of Dr. Harvey.
The award is named after Dr. Jimmy Jenkins, who served as President of Livingstone College for 16 years before retiring in 2022. Dr. Jenkins is generally credited with saving Livingstone from losing its accreditation and raising the college’s net value by $15 million. Dr. Harvey is the second recipient of the Jimmy Jenkins Legacy Award, after Dr. Jenkins himself, who was honored with the award and inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame in 2022.