Leon G. Kerry 1949(?)–

College sports administrator

At a Glance…

Sources

Leon G. Kerry serves as commissioner of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), the conference of sports teams for 12 historically black colleges in several southern states. Kerry is committed to making the CIAA a powerhouse in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II, and to promoting its well-attended annual men’s basketball tournament on a larger stage. “My job is to make the CIAA so much fun and special until the only thing you think about is the CIAA and coming back next year,” he told a writer for Black Enterprise, Hamil Harris, in an article that appeared on the magazine’s Web site.

Born in the late 1940s, Kerry grew up in Hampton, Virginia, and attended Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, which had originally been founded as part of Virginia Union University, one of the CIAA schools. He studied business administration, went on to earn a degree from the American Institute of Banking, and served in the U.S. Army as well. After a stint with the Atlantic National Bank and Systems Management of America, he rose to the position of assistant vice president at Sovran Bank, which later became part of Bank of America.

Kerry first became involved with the CIAA as a volunteer in its business office in 1988. Based in Hampton, Virginia, the CIAA dates back to 1912, which makes it the oldest black-schools athletic conference in the United States. In 2004, the conference’s 12 member schools were: Bowie State University, Elizabeth City State University, Fay-etteville State University, Johnson C. Smith University, Livingstone College, North Carolina Central University, Saint Augustine’s College, Saint Paul’s College, Shaw University, Virginia State University, Virginia Union University, and Winston-Salem State University. The CIAA oversees athletic meets between the men’s and women’s sports teams of the schools, which mostly belong to Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

When Kerry began working at the CIAA business office, it was badly organized and its finances were in disarray. With his years of banking experience, he was the right person for the task at hand, and it soon became clear that the CIAA’s business office needed a full-time leader. He was offered the post within months, and in 1989, when CIAA commissioner Bob Moorman

At a Glance…

Born c. 1949, in Hampton, VA; married to Angela; children; Lisa, LeAnne, Education: Norfolk State University, VA, degree in business administration; American Institute of Banking, degree in banking. Military Service: U.S. Army, active duty, attained rank of captain.

Career: Began career with Atlantic National Bank and Systems Management of America; Sovran Bank, assistant vice president; Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (GIAA), Hampton, VA, interim commissioner, 1989, commissioner, 1990–.

Memberships: National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II Commissioner’s Association; National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics John McLendon Minority Scholarship Committee.

Awards: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Leadership Award, 1992; National Collegiate Athletic Association, Fellows Award, 2002; MBC Network, Making Better Communities Award, 2003;

Addresses: Office —Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, P.O. Box 7349, 303 Butler Farm Rd, Ste. 102, Hampton, VA, 23666, Home—Chesapeake, VA, Web — www.theciaa.com

moved on, Kerry was made interim commissioner. Nine months later, in early 1990, he was named the full-time commissioner.

The CIAA runs 16 championship tournaments, in sports ranging from men’s golf and track to women’s volleyball and even bowling. But its annual men’s basketball showdown, which dates back to 1946, remains the most popular CIAA intercollegiate event. It is held every winter in a North Carolina or Virginia city. These cities are home to a large number of CIAA alumni, and the tournament has become an annual social event and informal reunion.

One of Kerry’s tasks has been to find corporate sponsorships for the CIAA tourney to help defray costs. The men’s basketball tournament had just two corporate sponsors when he began in 1990, but a dozen years later there were five in all, including Coca-Cola, Reebok, and Ford Motor Company. Attendance has increased dramatically under Kerry’s tenure. Some 42,000 people came to the tournament in 1999, but in 2004 more than 90,000 tickets were sold for its games in Raleigh, which concluded with the Virginia Union Panthers defeating the North Carolina Central Eagles 80-72. The Panthers went on to the NCAA Division II playoffs two weeks later, but lost to Georgia’s Columbus State University.

The CIAA men’s basketball tournament has proved so successful under Kerry that there is intense bidding competition to host the event, from such cities as Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, and even Washington, D.C.. Kerry hopes that the tournament might someday move on to an even larger venue. “We just need to market this a little better to make things happen,” he told Winston-Salem Journal reporter John Dell, “and that’s what we will continue to do…. [B]efore you start moving into a megabuck arena, you’ve got to gradually build it up.”

Kerry has served in the U.S. Army Reserve, and was honored with an NCAA Fellows Award in 2002. He makes his home in Chesapeake, Virginia. His wife, Angela, is a kindergarten teacher. They have two grown daughters, both of whom are graduates of Hampton University, another historic black college. At age 49, in the late 1990s, he survived a bout with cancer, and he credits his staff at CIAA with carrying the torch and making the men’s hoops tournament a possibility that year. “I was scared, it was a difficult time of my life,” he told Ebony. “But the team kept the dream going. I have a pretty good team here. I found out just how good they were when I had major surgery.”

In 2003, Kerry celebrated his thirteenth year on the job, which made him the longest-serving athletic commissioner among the historically black college athletic conferences, which include the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC). On a television show, Black Issues Forum, Kerry explained why the CIAA and its motto, “CIAA for Life,” were such an integral part of black life in these Southern cities: “I tell everybody that the reason the history is so rich is because, before integration, people knew they were going to college, but they knew it was going to be a CIAA school. And when you look around at most of the [historically black colleges] on the east coast, they belonged to the CIAA at one point in time.”

Sources

Periodicals

Ebony, February 2003, p. 94.

Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, NC), November 9, 2001, p. C4; November 17, 2002, p. C5.

On-line

Best, Bonitta, “One-On-One with CIAA Commissioner Leon Kerry,” Onnidan’s Black College Sports Online, www.onnidan.com/99-00/news/lkerrybb.htm(July 6, 2004).

Farrey, Tom, “Not the Kind of Place Looking to Cheat,” ESPN, http://espn.go.eom/ncf/s/2001/1126/1284955.html (July 6, 2004).

CIAA Online, www.theciaa.com (July 21, 2004). “Fans Gear Up for CIAA,” Black Enterprise, www.blackenterprise.com/ExclusivesEKOpen.asp?id=670 (July 6, 2004).

“Leon G. Kerry, Commissioner,” CIAA Office Staff, www.theciaa.com/about/staff.htm (July 6, 2004).

Other

Additional information was found at a transcript of a UNC-TV television broadcast of the show Black Issues Forum on March 17, 2000, located at www.unctv.org/bif/transcripts/1999/bifl521.html (July 6, 2004).

—Carol Brennan