This week’s BHM question: Who is the Black man who engineered the U of M athletic facilities upgrade that propelled them from among the Big Ten’s worst to among the conference’s best?
The 1980s saw Gopher football move downtown after the campus stadium was torn down. Williams Arena, known as The Barn, mostly resembled one inside, dirty and dingy. You could hear the hockey games and its crowds through its walls from next door’s Mariucci Arena.
Then McKinley Boston was hired as Minnesota’s first Black athletic director (1991-1995), who under his leadership spearheaded a campaign to update its facilities.
As a result, Williams had a major renovation (1991-93). A new Mariucci was built across the street, and old Mariucci was converted into the Sports Pavilion, renamed Maturi Pavilion in 2017, for volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics. All this because of Boston.
“One of the good things that happened during that period is that I was able to develop a relationship with Gov. Arne Carlson,” recalled Boston during a recent MSR phone interview. “To be able to get the governor to openly talk about supporting infrastructure improvement, trying to get state support for it.
“I would say probably the most important part of it was that the governor was very supportive of me and athletics in general. His help making the case I think was a very important piece of making it all happen,” he stressed.
“Mac,” as many called Boston, first came to Minnesota from his native North Carolina in 1964 to play football for the Gophers. He was all-conference and helped the school to a share of the Big Ten football title as a senior in 1967.
Boston went on to play pro football in the NFL and the CFL. He eventually earned his bachelor’s degree in 1973 and his master’s in 1974 from Montclair (N.J.) State College, where he also was an assistant coach and director of student services (1973-86).
After earning his doctorate in education (1987), Boston set his sights on college administration with hopes of one day becoming a college president. He was among a very small number of Division I Black athletic directors, first at Rhode Island (1988-90), then at Minnesota, where he later became the first and only vice-president of student development and athletics overseeing the residence halls, student health center, and other campus services.
However, Boston got swept up in the men’s basketball team academic scandal and was forced out. His dreams of being a top campus leader seemed forever derailed.
“I had my goals stated very clearly,” continued Boston. “The decision to not renew my contract was obviously something I just couldn’t overcome.” After a brief retirement from college athletics, Boston accepted the offer to be the athletic director at New Mexico State in 2004 and led the department for almost four years.
“I am very pleased with things that I accomplished at New Mexico State,” he said. “But at the same time, the only presidency that I applied for was Grambling University.
“I ended up as a finalist. I think the interesting thing about that was, I don’t think I’ve ever heard this before, but the chairman of the search process told me that I did well but they didn’t think I was Black enough,” he laughed.
Gopher fans can thank Boston for the U’s upgraded athletic facilities as they watch games today.
Disappointing numbers
The Big Ten this season is the only Power Four conference with zero Black head men’s basketball coaches, and only one Black conference head coach (Rutgers WBB Coach Coquese Washington) among the 36 total men’s and women’s basketball teams in the league.
There were five Black MBB head coaches in 2021, including Ben Johnson at Minnesota, who was fired after last season.
“I think that in our sport it is disappointing,” MSU’s Tom Izzo told MSR after the Feb. 4 Minnesota-Michigan State contest. “One of my favorites was here — Clem [Haskins] still is one of my favorites.”
Asked about Spartan Assistant Coach Saddi Washington, now in his second season at Michigan State, of his chances to someday become a head coach, Izzo said, “We’ve got to help him get one. That’s one of the things we talked to him about when he came here. He’s worthy of getting a head job.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.