New Basketball Courts Named For Local Athlete And Advocate

Press release from the City of Greensboro:

Post Date:10/28/2020 2:30 PM

Greensboro Parks and Recreation held a ribbon cutting celebration for the new Kenneth Free Sr. Court at 2 pm, Wednesday, October 28. Free is a local athlete and long-time sports advocate. The new outdoor basketball court at Barber Park and existing indoor courts at the George C. Simkins Indoor Sports Pavilion at Barber Park will be named in his honor.

Free, a former Greensboro Parks and Recreation Commissioner and Windsor Recreation Center director, is a trailblazing African American athlete, recreation professional, and collegiate athletics administrator. He played professional baseball as a young man before starting a career in recreation and athletics administration.

In 1978, he became the first commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), where he helped build exposure for athletes at historically black colleges and universities. Free was instrumental in the drive for MEAC institutions to attain NCAA Division I status, and in 1987 he was named to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Selection Committee, becoming the first African American appointed to that group.

Free later served as commissioner of the Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. In retirement, he has volunteered with the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League, helping to connect youth from urban areas to the sport of baseball.

Free has been inducted into the sports halls of fame at NC A&T, Dudley High School, and Guilford County; and most recently was honored in the 2018 class of the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame. He received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine from the late Governor Holshouser.

This press release was produced by the City of Greensboro. The views expressed here are the author’s own.