Most every year in recent memory, Pirate sports teams have been nationally ranked.
Most every year, ECU teams and athletes have participated in NCAA tournaments.
Most every year, Pirate athletes have been named to All-America teams and received national academic accolades.
And even with all that success, you could say the Pirates are just getting started.
“It all starts with our new AD, Jon Gilbert, and his goals for the athletic program, his vision,” says Kim McNeill, ECU’s new women’s basketball coach, who cites Gilbert as one of the reasons she came to ECU. “His passion to develop this athletic program, and where he’s been (Alabama, Tennessee) … he’s seen how it’s supposed to look. I think it’s a great time to be part of ECU athletics. It’s a great time to be part of this athletic program.”
As Gilbert likes to say, athletics isn’t the most important endeavor at East Carolina University, but it is the most visible. And that’s why he’s embracing the challenge of taking the Pirates to new levels of success.
“The better our athletic programs can be, we provide a significant amount of exposure to our university and eastern North Carolina,” Gilbert says. “The better we are on Saturday – everyone wants to be a part of that.”
The better our athletic programs can be, we provide a significant amount of exposure to our university and eastern North Carolina
Jon Gilbert, ECU athletics director
Facility and program improvements
Gilbert’s spearheaded a number of changes since arriving at ECU. His first act was hiring national championship-winning football coach Mike Houston away from James Madison University.
This summer, the Hight football practice field received new artificial turf. Another new turf field next to it will be available for other sports.
ECU’s newest coaches
C.C. Buford, women’s golf
Mike Houston, football
Kim McNeill, women’s basketball
The new TowneBank Tower, so named following a $3 million commitment earlier this year from the banking company, is part of a Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium project that includes premium seating and parking. The tower includes the Trade Club, named following a $1 million gift from Edwin and Ann Clark of Greenville. Beyond the stadium the project includes upgrades to the Ward Sports Medicine Building and the construction of the Walter and Marie Williams Hitting Facility beside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Murphy Center weight room has new equipment and graphics. The basketball court has gotten a redesign. Gilbert insisted on a redesign of the visiting athletic director’s box in the new TowneBank Tower at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, saying the previous design was too big. He made it smaller and sold the extra space as another suite.
Gilbert also hired Kristina Parrish, a dietitian with Big 10 and ACC experience, who joined ECU in June as the university’s first-ever director of sports nutrition.
Not surprisingly, interest in athletics is measurably up at ECU. Shortly before football season kicked off, fans had bought 13,700 football season tickets, more than last year (but still short of the more than 22,300 season tickets fans scooped up as recently as 2010). ECU has collected $566,000 in parking revenue in the first year of sales of premium passes. In July, Gilbert also said Pirate Club donations are up $260,000 compared to the same time in 2018.
On-field accomplishments are up as well. ECU’s baseball team was nationally ranked all season and won its Greenville regional. Overall, ECU finished No. 148 in final Directors Cup standings for 2019, sandwiched between Weber State and St. John’s. That’s up from a final ranking of 240 last year in the most widely cited ranking of college athletic programs. And the academic accomplishments keep rolling in:
Dorthea Forbrigd tees off at the 2019 AAC Championships.
Austin Allen
- The Women’s Golf Coaches Association included ECU golfers Carly Cox, Dorthea Forbrigd, Kate Law, Siranon Shoomee and Grace Yatawara among its list of 2018-19 Division 1 All-American Scholars. The team led all ECU programs with a 3.77 GPA for the 2018-19 year.
- The Golf Coaches Association of America named the men’s golf squad (team GPA of 3.41) to its All-Academic Team for the eighth straight year and 10th time in the 11-year history of the program.
- The National Association of Basketball Coaches named ECU’s men’s basketball team (3.13 team GPA) to its seventh annual Team Academic Excellence Awards. Justice Obasohan, Dimitrije Spasojevic, John Whitley, Tyler Foster, Jayden Gardner, Samson Strickland, DeShaun Wade and Addison Hill made the AAC All-Academic team. And Hill, Obasohan and Whitley were honored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches as part of its 2018-2019 Honors Court for their academics.
- Men’s tennis player Austin Allen received the AAC Commissioner’s Postgraduate Leadership Award. Allen graduated from ECU in May with a degree in biochemistry and plans to study at the UNC School of Medicine this fall.
- This spring, the football team achieved a program-record 2.74 GPA.
- Four baseball players achieved 4.0 GPAs (Jake Kuchmaner, Evan Voliva, Alec Burleson and Evan Odum) and helped the Pirates record their best-ever in-season spring GPA (3.48). The AAC named Jake Agnos the male and baseball scholar athlete of the year, and he was a Google Cloud First-Team Academic All-American. And Agnos, Burleson and Spencer Brickhouse were named to All-America teams for their play on the diamond.
- Baseball, men’s basketball, women’s golf and men’s tennis received 2018-19 AAC Team Academic Excellence Awards.
- The women’s swim team set a program-best 3.49 GPA.
From left, Brandee Markwith, Shelby Martin, Bri Wood, Toya Osuegbu and Kaiya HeylingerPowell celebrate during a volleyball match Sept. 14 against Norfolk State.
It’s not all on campus, either. ECU student-athletes logged more than 6,000 hours of community service during the 2018-19 academic year, including more than 1,400 hours following Hurricane Florence. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics named ECU as one of three finalists for its Community Service Award. And the ECU women’s tennis team received the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Community Service Award for the Carolina Region.
(Athletics is) an area where many young people learn confidence, learn organization, learn to be part of a group and work toward goals.
Sports’ intangibles
Athletics pays off in ways beyond wins and losses, dollars and cents, says Milt Sherman, a retired kinesiology professor and ECU Hall of Fame member from his days as a wrestler in the 1970s.
“It’s an area where many young people learn confidence, learn organization, learn to be part of a group and work toward goals,” Sherman says. “You don’t want to just have a team. You want to have a team of future college graduates. It was fun for me as a teacher to have a college athlete in the class because they tend to bring some energy with them.”
Sherman says when sports teams are successful, the spirit permeates the university and community. Addison Hill, who started 11 games for the Pirates basketball team last season before graduating and beginning his MBA at ECU, agrees.
“The spirit of East Carolina has always been kind of connected to athletics,” he says. “I don’t know if any student has ever done their entire undergraduate (years) without going to a football game. Even if you don’t walk in the game, just tailgate.”
And that extends to people from across North Carolina, Gilbert says.
“Everybody’s important,” Gilbert says.“We really have been a grassroots type of institution. We need them to buy a single game ticket, a season ticket, come to one of our free athletic events. That really is the strength of ECU. I’m excited about it.” Toward that end, football opened its season Aug. 31 against N.C. State. Men’s basketball opens Nov. 5 against Virginia Military Institute. Women’s basketball begins Nov. 6 versus Middle Tennessee State.
In addition, volleyball and women’s soccer began their seasons in August. All their home games are free.
1933-34 women’s basketball
This team went undefeated in its first season playing other schools. The team’s success led President Richard Wright to announce in chapel he was rescinding the rule that women had to wear hats and gloves when they went off campus. The announcement got a standing ovation.
1941 football
Coach John Christenbury led this team to the school’s only undefeated, untied football season, finishing 7-0.
1953-54 men’s basketball
Coached by Howard Porter, this team charged to a 23-2 record, won the North State Conference and earned a trip to the NAIA tournament.
1957 and 1959 men’s swimming
Coach Ray Martinez led these teams to NAIA national championships, the first national titles for any East Carolina team.
1961 baseball
Pitcher Larry Crayton struck out a record 19 Grambling batters in the NAIA College World Series semifinals in Sioux City, Iowa, and the Pirates defeated Sacramento State in the championship game to win the national title.
1972-73 women’s basketball
Coach Catherine Bolton’s team beat N.C. State and North Carolina on its way to an undefeated regular season and a trip to the national AIAW Tournament.
1973 wrestling
In 1973, coach John Welborn’s team won all 10 weight classes at the North Carolina College State Championships at Chapel Hill.
1991 football
The Pirates lost their first game but surged to 11 straight wins in the “We Believe” season, including a win in the Jan. 1, 1992, Peach Bowl over N.C. State and a final No. 9 ranking in the Associated Press poll.
2004 baseball
The Pirates won the Conference USA regular season and the Kinston regional, finishing with a 51-13 record and a No. 8 national ranking by Baseball America.