![]() ![]() “This is a five-year plan, and that means you have five years to get ready. “I’m from Kentucky where we breed horses, and you don’t send a jackass to the Kentucky Derby,” he told the Winston-Salem Journal. He wasn’t convinced that the school could financially make the jump up. Gaines had been retired for a decade, but spent decades as the school’s director of athletics as well as its basketball coach. “Specifically, competing on a bigger stage will elevate awareness of WSSU and our reputation for excellence regionally and nationally, while creating opportunities to generate even more revenue from our athletic programs.” “Moving up to NCAA Division I advances our university’s strategic plan and will offer our talented student-athletes even more challenging competition,” Martin said. Martin and with approval from the board of trustees, WSSU decided it wanted to move up to Divsion I athletics. ![]() The program was best known for basketball Hall of Famers Big House Gaines and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe as well as a championship football program that produced multiple NFL players despite its Division II status. July 2004 was a big month for Winston-Salem State University Athletics. Martin were on opposite sides of the DI move. WSSU legend Big House Gaines and Chancellor Harold L. Ironically, WSSU’s decision to move back to the CIAA a little over a decade appears to have started the unraveling of the MEAC. Central) has a good home, but for Winston-Salem State we are all about Division II and the CIAA. “Commissioner (Dennis) Thomas does a great job in the MEAC and our friends in Durham (N.C. Thomas helped her alma mater, North Carolina Central, complete its move to Division I around the same time. ![]() It attained provisional membership in the MEAC before ultimately deciding to abort the mission and return to the CIAA. WSSU infamously attempted to move up to Division I status in the mid-to-late 2000s. ![]()
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