Alabama Black College wins National Basketball Championship

As “21st Century Hebrew Boys”, OU men’s basketball team upholds Bible’s Seventh-Day Sabbath Observance: Wins national championship

 

By Dawnette Chambers, Oakwood University Student Writer

Nationwide (BlackNews.com) — The Ambassadors men’s basketball team of Oakwood University, a Seventh-day Adventist and United Negro College Fund institution, won the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) 2012 Division 1 Championship after defeating Rochester College 54-51, on Saturday night, March 10, 2012.

They returned to their Huntsville, Alabama campus on Sunday, welcomed enthusiastically by boosters chanting, “O-U, O-U!”

Similarly the men’s basketball team from Andrews University, also a Seventh-day Adventist institution, won its USCAA Division 2 championship contest, during the same tournament.

More than just winning the championship, these men stood up for their Bible-based faith, according to Cedric Francois, producer and play-by-play announcer for Ambassador Radio Network. “This is the first time in the USCAA’s history, the championship games for both Men’s Division 1 and 2 were re-scheduled to respect the religious convictions of Oakwood and Andrews Universities, respectively.”

OU Athletic Director James Roddy explained that, of all the athletic associations he met with when seeking a league for Oakwood – including the NCAA, NAIA and NCCAA – the USCAA was the only organization that would respect Bible-based, seventh-day Sabbath observance.

Team members got off the bus at OU’s Ashby Gym, adorned with yellow and blue leis, symbols of welcome and congratulations. Senior Nardo Bryant thanked the crowd, declaring, “Let the record reflect that this is the first year in Oakwood’s history that the Ambassadors won (with a season record of) 20-12… in the year 2012, coincidentally.”

Senior Austin Doggette, All-American and Tournament MVP, has followed in footsteps of his brother (now Pastor) James Doggette, Jr., who was 2008 Tournament MVP when the Ambassadors won their first national championship.

For more details about Oakwood University, visit www.oakwood.edu

*Hebrew Boys reference from the Bible, Daniel 1:8-20.