Lloyd Carter

Lloyd Carter (born 1959) is a coach, retired firefighter and former Head Diversity Officer, BCFD; and former president of the Vulcan Blazers, a black fraternal organization of firefighters in Baltimore, Maryland. He recently was made head coach of the Hampton University Lacrosse team which is now Division I. This is the only team playing in Division 1 at a HBCU. He is a retired chief from the Baltimore City Fire Department and is also retired from the military reserve.

History

Carter served in the Army reserve and Maryland National Guard, became a firefighter in 1983 and moved thru the ranks, retiring as a Deputy Chief from the BFCD when his position and division was cut by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's budget for 2013. He had previously been president of the Vulcan Blazers, a black fraternal order of firefighters that fought the fire department to diversify the ranks of the fire department of the 65% black city.[1] He had filed suit in federal court[2] alleging that the elimination of his position as head diversity officer was racially motivated, however, the claims were turned down by the court.[3] Coach Carter, the men's lacrosse coach at Hampton University, played Division II lacrosse at Morgan State, which dropped the sport in 1981.[4]

Division II player

As one of the attackmen for Morgan State's division II lacrosse team, LAX was unique at the historically black college and on May 6, 1981, the MS Bears played their final game, losing to Loyola of Baltimore.[5] He graduated and later became chief of Emergency Medical Services in Baltimore. He also coached high school lacrosse and founded a lacrosse organization called Blax Lax in 2002 to attract more African-Americans to the sport.[6] In 2011, he helped to organize a lacrosse club at Hampton University. Suddenly, in May 2015, Hampton U announced it was elevating lacrosse to varsity status.[7] They chose Carter to be head coach. While Hampton is not the first HBCU to fund lacrosse, it's the first to do so on the Division I level. The visionary of Hampton's Lacrosse program was a student who died from an undiagnosed enlarged heart and cardiac arrest on December 28, 2010.[8] Michael Crawford had come up with the idea of starting a club program of lacrosse at Hampton but died before he could realize his dream. His mother, Verina, was determined to see her son's vision come true, and soon contacted Carter thru the internet. He commuted the 4 hours to Hampton from his home in Baltimore for 2 years and it was this commitment and leadership that was one of the main reasons Hampton officials hired him once the decision was made to add lacrosse and women's soccer as NCAA sports to the schools roster last May. In Maryland, where lacrosse is the "Official State Sport",[9] no black college had the sport competing at the NCAA level.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "City fire chief promotes African Americans to two top jobs". tribunedigital-baltimoresun.
  2. ↑ "Fire department sued over alleged racial discrimination". tribunedigital-baltimoresun.
  3. ↑ "City fire department to cut recruitment division developed to boost diversity". tribunedigital-baltimoresun.
  4. ↑ http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/lacrosse/bs-sp-preston-column-0212-20160211-column.html
  5. ↑ "Hampton lacrosse: The first HBCU DI team gears up for first game". NCAA.com.
  6. ↑ "Fireside Chat With Lloyd Carter Of Blax Lax". Lacrosse All Stars.
  7. ↑ Angela Bronner Helm (13 February 2016). "Hampton Is First HBCU To Play Division I Lacrosse – The Root". The Root.
  8. ↑ "Athletes' Deaths Raise Awareness of Undiagnosed Heart Conditions". phys.org.
  9. ↑ "Jousting & Lacrosse, Maryland State Sports". maryland.gov.
  10. ↑ "Hampton University is set to make history Saturday as the first HBCU lacrosse team in Division I.". Daily Press. 12 February 2016.
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