from teammate Edwin Skinner.
Two-time defending champion Maryland State College entered the 1963 track and field season as the favorite to win the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s conference title again. What the team did was so much more.
In February of that year, the Hawks proved to be one of the strongest teams in the east. Facing off against the University of Maryland and Morgan State College in the mile-relay final, anchor Charlie Mays ran past two runners, IC4A champion Hubie Brown and ACC quarter-mile record holder Chris Stauffer, to win the relay for the Hawks.
Leading up to the conference meet in Petersburg, Va., the Hawks were expected to win, but what they did was dominate. MSC earned 54 points to win, beating rival Morgan State by 15. The team earned numerous top-three finishes, including a win in the mile relay and Mays taking the broad jump with a leap of 24 feet – two inches.
The Hawks were not done, however. That season, UMES brought home more trophy case hardware: the NAIA championship and later the NCAA Division II title (then known as the College Division) in June.
The seven-man team was led by Al Santio, a future pro basketball player, who won the discus throw with a toss of 173 feet – four inches. He later won the shot put event as well.
Ed Skinner finished first in the 400-yard dash with a time of 57.1 seconds, while Mays continued to dominate as a broad jumper, winning with a meet-best distance of 24 feet – 5¼ inches.
In March 1964, Robert Brown (48.5), Harley Morris (47.8), Skinner (48.1) and Earl Rogers (47.3) set a world record in the mile relay with a time of 3:11.7, leading Maryland State to an NCAA Eastern Division team title. At the summer Olympics in Tokyo seven months later, Skinner won a bronze medal as a member of Trinidad and Tobago’s 4 X 400 meter relay team.
Source: Afro-American newspaper and Sports Illustrated archived articles.
