By Mia Berry
Morehouse College director of athletics Harold Ellis, a former basketball standout for the Maroon Tigers, recalls making numerous phone calls to scouts and agents as a student-athlete, asking for a chance to play in the NBA. Now Morehouse basketball players will get an opportunity Ellis would have loved to have had in college.
Morehouse and Tuskegee University, Division II rivals in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, will participate in the 2025 NBA HBCU Classic during NBA-All Star Weekend in San Francisco, the NBA announced Thursday. The two historically Black universities will play on Feb. 15, 2025, at Oakland Arena, one of several Bay Area locations that will host NBA All-Star events.
“To get the job as [athletic director] and to bring the NBA [HBCU Classic] to Morehouse since I’ve been there, it was unbelievable,” said Ellis, who is the only athlete in Morehouse history to play in the league. He also spent several years in the Detroit Pistons’ front office as a pro personnel evaluator.
“When I was in school at Morehouse, my whole goal was to work in the NBA. Everybody knows this,” Ellis said. “It’s good for these kids. … We didn’t have the opportunity. And now that the NBA is taking claim and taking ownership of the HBCU space, it’s incredible. … Coming to our campus is important because they’ll actually get to see, ‘Hey, the NBA is here. We can work in the NBA, be part of NBA life.’ ”
The SIAC is the fourth HBCU conference to play in the NBA HBCU Classic. Morgan State University and Howard University represented the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in the inaugural game in 2022, Grambling State University and Southern University represented the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 2023, and Winston-Salem State University and Virginia Union University represented the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association in the game in February.
The SIAC, which includes 15 institutions, is the largest of the four HBCU conferences, and Morehouse and Tuskegee are founding members of the conference. SIAC commissioner Anthony Holloman said he is excited to showcase one of the conference’s historic rivalries and the SIAC’s brand of basketball.
“We have high-scoring teams who get after it defensively, and I think the athleticism and the toughness which our teams play with will be on display. … It’s a real good opportunity for the world to see HBCU basketball,” Holloman said. “I know that there are players that are capable of playing professional basketball. This is an opportunity for somebody to showcase themselves for an opportunity in the G League [or] playing overseas.”
The rivalry between the two HBCUs has a long history. Tuskegee was the inaugural SIAC men’s basketball champion in 1934, and the university’s Golden Tigers made the Division II NCAA tournament in 2023. Tuskegee defeated Morehouse in football Oct. 5, and Tuskegee director of athletics Reginald Ruffin is looking for a similar result in basketball.
“When you talk about the history of two of the greatest institutions, Tuskegee University and Morehouse College, because of the contribution they made to society, now we get a chance to be a part of the celebration with the NBA,” Ruffin said. “It’s always a competition. We did what we needed to do footballwise. So now we’re coming up on basketball, and we’re keeping the same energy.”
The NBA and league partners will donate $100,000 each to Morehouse and Tuskegee to support academic resources, athletics and wellness services. The league also offers the NBA HBCU Fellowship Program, which provides undergraduate and graduate HBCU students with career development opportunities in basketball operations. Fellowship participants work the NBA HBCU Classic, and previous fellows have been heavily involved in preparations for the game, from event planning to merchandising.
“One of our key values within the NBA is to innovate with intention,” said Lesley Slaton Brown, the NBA’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. “So we’re bringing that talent in with some level of understanding already of the league experience and or team experience. and we’re saying, ‘Help us create a better experience. Bring in new ideas.’
“We’ll continue to make commitments and challenge ourselves to be better, to do better, and to create an experience that really amplifies the space of HBCUs and gets people excited.”
Over the last 10 years, Morehouse leads in head-to-head matchups against Tuskegee 11-3. The teams have split their last four games 2-2, with each contest being decided by single digits.
Morehouse men’s basketball coach Douglas Whittler remembers the intensity of playing against Tuskegee when he played basketball for the Maroon Tigers, and Whittler and Ellis have spent decades participating in the rivalry game as players and members of the athletic staff.
Ellis believes the NBA HBCU Classic will be another tightly contested battle.
“I never lost to Tuskegee. I know I had some of my better games against Tuskegee. We used to say we’re gonna beat these guys to sleep,” Ellis said. “It’s a basketball rivalry, but it’s two historic institutions. … We’re both national brands, and I think the fans will really respect that, and fans will come out and understand that it’s a rivalry.”
