Courtesy of Delaware State University
Delaware State University students, staff and alumni made their annual sojourn to the MEAC Basketball Tournament on March 8-9 to support the Hornets men and women’s teams and to celebrate two of their own.
During the tourney week, the MEAC honored Delaware State University basketball star Jahsha Bluntt as one of it 2023 Hall of Fame inductees. The MEAC also recognized Maxine Lewis, DSC Class of 1973, as the University’s 2023 Distinguished Alumnae.
A two-time MEAC Player of the Year (2006 and 2007), Bluntt was also the MEAC Basketball Tournament’s Most Outstanding Performer in 2005. During his career with the Hornets, Delaware State won its lone MEAC tournament championship – and corresponding NCAA Tournament berth – in 2005, while also making two NIT appearances.
Bluntt led Delaware State to MEAC regular-season titles in three straight seasons: 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07, and he was a two-time First Team All-MEAC honoree. One of the MEAC’s most prolific scorers, Bluntt currently ranks third in conference history in career made three-pointers (303) and 20th all-time in scoring with 1,721 career points, third in Delaware State men’s basketball history. He was inducted in the Delaware State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.
After Bluntt graduated in 2007, he played basketball internationally for the SO Maritime Boulogne in France, where he average 18.6 points a game in the 2008-09 season. He later returned to his native Los Angeles where he works with youth and resumed his studies at UCLA.
Bluntt joins the other elite Delaware State University MEAC Hall of Fame inductees, which include Dr. Luna Mishoe (1981), John Price (1986), John Taylor (1993), James Williams (1995), Bill Collick (2007), Gene Lake (2009), and Rod Milstead (2021).
“I am humbled to be inducted into the MEAC Hall of Fame, and grateful to join the ranks of legendary athletes, coaches and contributors from our outstanding conference institutions,” said Bluntt. “I’m thankful for the blessing to represent Delaware State, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and all HBCUs. By the grace of God, my teammates, coaching staff and supporters, we were able to achieve so much and help put Delaware State on the map.”
Ms. Lewis’ honor this year as the University’s Distinguished Alumnae comes in recognition of her career in the mass media and business, which began immediately after her 1973 graduation. Later that year she chose to stay at her alma mater to become the first female Sport Information Director for DSC Athletics, as post she held for 11 years.
In 1989, ABC Sports hired Lewis as a Senior Sports Publicist, a career chapter that had commuted from Delaware to New York City by train and subway for 16 years. “It was certainly a challenge, but I was determined to make it work,” she said. “I was not only representing myself, but I was also representing Delaware State and Black women.”
After her years at that sports network, Lewis established herself as an entrepreneur in Dover, where partnering with two other women she established and still operates Maxine’s Fashions in Downtown Dover.
During the MEAC Tourney Week, the University’s Cheerleading Team performed at an event honoring a Norfolk elementary school for winning a reading award.
