CIAA commissioner fell into job he loves

Leon Kerry never set out to be the commissioner of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. It just kind of happened.

But as he and the rest of the CIAA settle in this week in Charlotte for the annual women's and men's basketball tournaments, Kerry will be in his element. He loves tournament week because it's the culmination of the conference's long-standing commitment to putting on a good show.

And as the tournaments have grown, Kerry, as much as anybody, knows it's about more than just basketball.

"We've changed the way people envision sports at Division II," Kerry said of the CIAA Tournaments, which will start today with women's games. "Everybody is trying to do what we do with having an event, having functions around the event and getting the fans and alumni involved.

"It's history and marketing."

The CIAA will turn 100 next year, and this week's men's tournament will be the 66th. Kerry said the deep history of CIAA schools has kept the tournament viable.

Tournament attendance, especially in Charlotte, has remained steady despite the conference's loss of N.C. Central and, for four years, Winston-Salem State. But WSSU is back in the CIAA, and Kerry said he expects a bump in attendance because of it.

The CIAA has lost other schools — notably Norfolk State and Hampton to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in the mid-1990s — but the tournament has continued to evolve, in part because of Kerry's decision to market it. More sponsors came on board, and the tournament slowly regained its appeal.

"When we came to Charlotte, we became a destination," Kerry said. "When we were in Raleigh, we were still just a tournament. But in Charlotte, people who live in North Carolina, South Carolina or even Atlanta knew about it. And what also helps is Charlotte is a professional city with basketball and football teams."

Kerry, 62 and a Norfolk State graduate, worked in banking for several years and went to the CIAA to work part time in the business office. He was named the commissioner in 1990, and his backgrounds in business and banking have served him well.

"I went part time with the CIAA because my daughter was 12 at the time, and I wanted to start making sure we had enough money to send her to college," said Kerry, who played high school sports in the Hampton, Va., area but didn't play in college. "They made me an offer to become business manager, and then when the commissioner left they said, 'Hold the fort down for 90 days until we can get somebody.'

"Well, that was 22 years ago."

Kerry is proud of the basketball tournaments' growth. But he also has his critics, who say he has too many sponsors and that not enough money goes back to the schools.

"Any time you try to do something different," Kerry said, "there's criticism."

The CIAA has changed since 2006, the year WSSU left in an attempt to move to Division I. Chowan has been admitted as the first non-historically black school, Lincoln (Pa.) also has rejoined, and N.C. Central has left for the MEAC for the second time.

Even when WSSU didn't play, some of its fans continued to attend the CIAA Tournaments. The same has happened with other schools, and Kerry is proud that fans without a current CIAA connection continue to attend.

"Those fans from schools that are no longer in the conference belong to us," Kerry said. "Even when your school reclassifies, if you want to see people you went to school with, you come to our tournament."

Kerry's marketing strategy is simple — offer more than basketball. Sponsors want to see people attend the tournaments, even if they don't go into the arena to watch games. Tournament week offers enough to keep fans busy, including parties and banquets.

Kerry is so committed to keeping sponsors happy that he put one loyal sponsor (Richard Franklin of Coca-Cola) into the CIAA's John B. McLendon Hall of Fame this year.

"Some people say we have too many sponsors," Kerry said. "Actually, some coaches think we have too many sponsors. But with the sponsors, you can do anything you have to do to make the tournament better. We've been fortunate to increase our scholarship dollars to all of our schools thanks to the sponsors and the folks who buy tickets."

The scholarship program is the biggest beneficiary of the tournament, another fact of which Kerry is proud, and this week, he'll try something new.

"We have a program this year to ask fans and alumni to donate $100 each to the scholarship program, and we're trying to get 18,000 fans to do it," Kerry said. "Hopefully, we can do it and increase that scholarship fund even more."

Even though the CIAA now has 13 schools, Kerry still isn't satisfied.

"I'm looking for No. 14, and that school may be running away from me, but I'm still going after it," Kerry said. "I'd like to get to 16 schools and we'd have eight in each division."

Kerry said he doesn't know how much longer he will remain commissioner but said he enjoys the challenge.

"If I say I'm going to do this for 10 or 15 more years, they'll want to get rid of me today," he said. "Everything is in my head, and if I lose my mind then I'm done."

Kerry also has plans to enhance the CIAA beyond basketball and expansion.

"I would like to see a CIAA building with our Hall of Fame and our offices," Kerry said. "And I'd like to see our football championship go to a major stadium like RFK or Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte or somewhere like that."

Kerry knows marketing the CIAA is a 24-hour-a-day job.

"The hardest thing about being successful is staying on top," he said. "Staying on top is hard because there are detractors who try to knock you down."

jdell@wsjournal.com

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