By Ariyana Griffin
Special to the AFRO
Morgan State University’s (MSU) wrestling team has made a comeback after a 25-year hiatus, making it the only historically Black college or university (HBCU) to offer a Division 1 men’s wrestling program.
The sport was cut from MSU during the 1996-1997 season due to lack of funding. The organization, HBCU Wrestling, donated $2.7 million to the institution to restart the program, supporting its goal to diversify the sport and provide opportunities to HBCU students.
HBCU Wrestling is “committed to restoring and establishing women’s and men’s wrestling programs at historically Black colleges and universities.” They execute this by pledging “to make up to a 10-year commitment to NCAA-sanctioned wrestling programs,” along with providing “scholarship opportunities, coaches with salaries comparable to top programs and competitive operating budgets,” according to information released by the organization.
This opportunity opened the doors for the highly decorated wrestler, Kenny Monday, to become the head coach for the team. Monday is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and earned an Olympic Gold medal in 1988 and a silver medal in 1992.
He has vivid memories of how he fell in love with the sport at just five years old. He chalks his love for the sport up to his two older brothers, Mike and Jim Monday, who started wrestling at a YMCA program in Tulsa, Okla. “I started behind my brothers and then just fell in love with it. I never, never looked back—never, never stopped,” he said.
He continued pursuing the sport through high school.
“I didn’t lose a match from the seventh grade through the 12th grade,” said Monday. “I was one of the most highly recruited athletes out of high school.”
Throughout college, he trained, competed and prepared to join the Olympic team in 1988. He became the first African American to win an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling.
His journey and love for HBCUs ultimately has led him to serve Morgan State University as a coach, reviving the program—a heavy task— but not too much for Monday.
The Olympian said building and recruiting the team from scratch was complex, but he is confident in the selection.
“I started with one kid, and now we have 30 kids on the program.” He shared that he was dedicated to building a meaningful team.
“I recruited all the kids before I even hired an assistant.” His goal is to mold MSU’s team and become national champions.
Eric Tecson, a freshman, took a gap year to train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and is excited to be competing at Morgan. “It’s a pretty young team, so we’re all like-minded. We ready to get this thing started,” he said.
He enjoys the sport and the mental aspect. “It’s a mental grind. It’s a physical grind every day. You come in here, and you find something to get better— that other people can’t do, and then it pushes you to keep going and keep working on your moves,” he said. “It’s a grind that you can never perfect, but you always are chasing perfection.”
Monday is excited to share his connections, knowledge and resources with the team.
Kingsley Menifee originally planned to attend Cornell University but, after being given the opportunity by Monday, switched his decision and attended MSU. He explained that as a freshman, he is getting acclimated to being a collegiate student-athlete, but the team helps each other through that. “School comes first, so you gotta get that done,” he said. “We have study hours to maintain every week and then practice. So it keeps our schedule pretty busy.”
Coach Monday explained the importance of the students coming in and being successful not only on the mat but also in their academics. “Our goal is to bring student-athletes in and have our student-athletes graduate. We want to make sure we have a high graduation rate so they can come through Morgan State and be Morgan State graduates.”
Jake Marsh has had experience being on a college wrestling team. He recently graduated from Princeton University, and with his last year of eligibility, he joined the team and is earning his master’s in Finance. “It’s pretty cool to be around a group of younger guys,” he said. “They have a little more drive; they’re more excited. So that’s kind of refreshing to be around that energy.”
He talked about balancing school and athletics, but he feels accustomed to it due to his time at Princeton; however, with the graduate-level workload, he is finding his balance. “I’d also like to attend the national tournament, represent there, and help reach our independent highest potential.” He has the goal of possibly helping the team next year as a grad assistant.
In their first home match of the season, the team won their first victory, 53-0 over Marymount University.
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