Baltimore, Maryland · Founded 1867 · Bears
“The National Treasure of Baltimore — 1867-founded, still growing, and marching everywhere from Normandy to the Rose Parade”
M3 marches the 5.5-mile Tournament of Roses route in Pasadena, Jan 1, 2026 — the band's biggest stage yet, filmed in 4K by Marching.com.
Full September 23, 2000 telecast of the Bears–Bison rivalry on Home Team Sports — a time capsule of MEAC football at the turn of the century.
M3 performing at the 137th Rose Parade on a rainy Pasadena morning — a second angle on the historic January 2026 march.
Fan-shot M3 performance footage from the 2026 Tournament of Roses Parade.
Third video angle of M3's Rose Parade march, shared the day of the parade.
Another 4K upload of M3's full Rose Parade performance, 'From Baltimore, Maryland.'
M3's field show at the 45th Annual Pasadena Bandfest, December 29, 2025 — the band's warm-up showcase two days before the Rose Parade.
M3 takes over outside Lucas Oil Stadium at the 2025 Circle City Classic pep rally — full drumline-and-horns HBCU classic energy.
M3's 2025 halftime show at Hughes Stadium during the Battle for Greater Baltimore — the band on its home turf.
News coverage of M3's June 2024 history-making march in Normandy, France — the first HBCU band at the D-Day 80th commemoration.
WBAL-TV report on M3 heading to the 2019 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade — the first HBCU band from Maryland to march it.
Short of M3 with Lin-Manuel Miranda ahead of the September 2026 Sunday Night Football 'Hamilton' halftime tribute at MetLife Stadium.
Class of 1957 — founder of Black Enterprise magazine; entrepreneur and philanthropist
Attended — Academy Award-winning actress and comedian (The Parkers, Precious)
Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker, Kansas City Chiefs — played under Earl Banks at Morgan
Pro Football Hall of Fame lineman, New York Giants — Hurt-era Morgan great
Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end, Cleveland Browns
Pro Football Hall of Fame running back, Cleveland Browns
Playwright, TV producer, and entrepreneur — VERIFIED Morgan State (not Central State); his stage plays and films made him one of the most successful Black playwright-producers in America
White House correspondent and journalist; broadcast journalism graduate
Class of 1972 — New York Times sports columnist; played defensive back at Morgan
Scientist and inventor — NASA physicist known for the illusion transmitter
Tony Award-nominated playwright and screenwriter (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
Actor — Proposition Joe on HBO's The Wire; studied music at Morgan
Attended — R&B and gospel singer ('Let's Hear It for the Boy')
Class of 1991 — jazz singer
Attended — music industry executive (Def Jam, 300 Elektra); Baltimore native who studied electrical engineering before the hustle pulled him out
Class of 1939 — teacher, civil rights leader, Maryland state senator; second Black woman elected to a U.S. state senate
Lawyer and civil rights activist
First commanding officer of United States Africa Command; one of nearly a dozen Army generals Morgan produced
Civil rights activist and music critic for the Baltimore Afro-American
WWE professional wrestler; former Morgan basketball player
Comedian and BET VJ
Jazz musician
Jazz vibraphonist
Class of 2002 — composer and music producer
Television writer — Disney's The Proud Family and Jump In!
Morgan State began in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute, founded by the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and envisioned by African-American pastors of the Washington Conference, with a starting budget of just $5,000. Its mission was to train formerly enslaved men and freedmen for the ministry. The first classes met on April 30, 1867, in the basement lecture hall of Baltimore's Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church, with 9 students and 1 teacher. The school was incorporated November 27, 1867 — the date Morgan still celebrates as Founders Day — and named for the centennial of Methodism in America.
The five legendary founders of Centenary Biblical Institute were Reverend Benjamin Brown, Reverend Samuel Green Sr., Reverend Elijah Grissom, Reverend James Harper, and Reverend James Peck — most of them formerly enslaved clergymen tied to the Underground Railroad. Rev. Samuel Green Sr. was arrested for possessing a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, then deemed illegal abolitionist propaganda, and was sentenced to ten years in a Baltimore City penitentiary, serving five before his release in 1862. Upon his release, Green vowed to open a trail to educate formerly enslaved people in the Maryland area. Their stories were recovered by former Morgan regent Dr. Burney J. Hollis and told in the university documentary 'History of a National Treasure'.
Thomas Kelso, co-founder and president of the school's board of directors, used his estate to endow the Male Free School and Colored Institute, giving the young seminary its first real financial footing. Kelso was the white Methodist businessman whose legacy gift helped the Institute survive its fragile first decades. His backing, alongside the Baltimore Conference's support, is why the school could keep its doors open long enough to grow into a college. The Congressional Record for Morgan's 150th anniversary notes his role explicitly.
For the 1874–75 school year, the Institute admitted its first women and added a Normal department to prepare teachers, not just ministers. The charter was amended so the school trained students in teaching as well as theology. This pivot turned Morgan from a seminary into a genuine educational institution for Black Baltimore. The 1922 graduate Ada Rebecca Cummings would later become the first African American woman licensed to teach kindergarten in Baltimore.
In 1886 Morgan established a branch school called Princess Anne Academy on Maryland's Eastern Shore to extend education to Black students in a region where almost none existed. That branch grew into its own institution — today it is the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne. It remains one of the oldest continuously operating historically Black institutions in the country. Morgan's fingerprints on the Eastern Shore campus are part of why the university's origin story is bigger than one Baltimore neighborhood.
In 1890 the state legislature granted the trustees' petition to change the corporate name to Morgan College, raise the school to full collegiate grade, and authorize it to offer bachelor's degrees. The new name honored the Reverend Lyttleton F. Morgan, the first chairman of the board of trustees, a long-time board member, strong financial supporter, and land donor. President John J. Wagner had pushed for the change, arguing the name should reflect that the Institute was no longer just a seminary. Students in the college-preparatory department had been asking for an affordable in-state path to complete their studies, and the trustees acted on it.
In 1893 Morgan established a second branch, the Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute in Lynchburg, Virginia. Like Princess Anne, it was planted to carry Black higher education into places that had almost none. It survives today as Virginia University of Lynchburg. The two branch campuses are a measure of how aggressively Morgan was trying to export its mission in the 1880s and 1890s.
In 1895 Morgan awarded its first baccalaureate degree to George W. F. McMechen. McMechen went on to earn a law degree from Yale University and built a career as one of Baltimore's distinguished civil rights lawyers, becoming one of Morgan's main financial supporters. The building that houses the school of business and management is named for him today. His story — Morgan's first graduate becoming one of its biggest benefactors — became the template for the school's alumni culture.
John O. Spencer took the presidency in 1902 and held it for 35 years, the longest tenure in school history up to that point. He shepherded Morgan College through its full transformation into an accredited liberal-arts college, with full accreditation arriving in 1925. The campus began building the academic record in sciences, sports, and Black cultural life that Morgan is known for today. By the time Spencer retired in 1937, the school had outgrown its old seminary identity entirely.
In 1929–30 Edward P. 'Eddie' Hurt arrived from Virginia University of Lynchburg and began one of the most dominant coaching runs in college football history. From 1931 to 1938 his Bears went 54 (some accounts say 56) games without a loss — 47 wins and 7 ties. Under Hurt, Morgan posted 11 undefeated seasons and won 14 CIAA championships. He coached football, basketball, and track, leading his teams to 33 CIAA championships across all three sports and producing two Pro Football Hall of Famers and an Olympic gold medalist.
In 1937 Dwight O. W. Holmes became the first African American president of the institution. Holmes was a scholar who wrote 'The Evolution of the Negro College' and argued it was time for African Americans to lead their own institutions and determine their own curricula. His arrival marked the moment Morgan's leadership began to match its student body. He led the school through its most important structural change — the 1939 purchase by the State of Maryland.
In 1939, on the recommendation of the Commission on Higher Education of Negroes in Maryland appointed by the state legislature, Maryland purchased the school and made it a state institution, renaming it Morgan State College. The purchase gave Morgan public funding for the first time and tied its survival to the state's obligations to Black higher education. The campus sits today in northeast Baltimore, where it has been since the early 20th century. State ownership set the stage for every expansion that followed — and for decades of fights over whether Maryland funded its HBCUs fairly.
Hurt's 1943 Bears finished the season without allowing a single opponent to score — one of the most famous defensive feats in college football history. The team was part of a run in which Morgan claimed six Black college national championships under Hurt. The 1943 squad's perfection is still cited whenever HBCU football greatness is debated. Hurt remains on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot decades later, though he has never been inducted — a slight HBCU Gameday called him 'the most overdue' nominee.
Martin D. Jenkins, an educational psychologist by training, became president in 1948 and led Morgan State College for 22 years through the civil rights era. His 1936 dissertation was a landmark socio-psychological study of gifted Black children, arguing that given the same support and resources as white children, Black children could perform at the same level academically or higher. His scholarship gave Morgan an intellectual backbone during desegregation battles. He retired in 1970, ending the longest presidency since Spencer.
Earl C. 'Papa Bear' Banks succeeded Hurt as head football coach in 1960 and opened with one of the greatest starts any coach has ever had: a 31–0 record from 1965 to 1968. Under Banks the Bears won five CIAA championships and three unbeaten regular seasons, and went to four bowl games. His teams produced two more Pro Football Hall of Famers — Willie Lanier and Raymond Chester — bringing Morgan's total to four, something few schools anywhere can claim. In 2017 Morgan unveiled six-foot bronze statues of Hurt and Banks at Legends Plaza outside Hughes Stadium.
In 1970 Morgan left the CIAA — where it still holds the conference record for most football championships — and joined the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The Bears promptly won the first MEAC football championship in conference history in 1971 under Banks. It was a statement that Morgan intended to dominate the new league the way it had dominated the old one. The 1979 MEAC title under Clarence Thomas would be Morgan's last conference football championship to date.
In 1975 the Maryland legislature elevated the school to university status, and it became Morgan State University. Andrew Billingsley served as the first president of the university era from 1975 to 1984. The new name reflected a graduate-level institution with growing research ambitions. Every leader since has carried the title 'President of Morgan State University.'
In 1990 Morgan students staged a six-day takeover of the administration building, protesting broken dorms, leaking roofs, and outdated labs. President Earl Richardson, who had marched in civil rights protests as a student, told them to take their demands to the state — and the students walked 34 miles to Annapolis to force a meeting with the governor. The protest became the origin story of Morgan's funding-equity fight. Sixteen years later it produced the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education lawsuit.
In 2016, ahead of its sesquicentennial, the National Trust for Historic Preservation declared Morgan State a National Treasure — the second HBCU so honored after Howard, and the only one where the entire campus carries the designation. The Trust had put all HBCUs on its 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list in 1998 and fought for the $61 million that helped restore historic Black college buildings. President David Wilson had pushed the effort after being told not to rush restoration of the Memorial Chapel porch — a fight he later said took eight or nine extra months but was the right call.
On November 27, 2017, Morgan celebrated the 150th anniversary of its first academic year and Founders Day, with the U.S. Senate passing S. Res. 293 in its honor. The resolution walked through the whole arc: Sharp Street basement in 1867, women admitted in 1874, Princess Anne Academy, the 1890 renaming, state purchase in 1939, and university status in 1975. By then enrollment had climbed back past 7,700 after the Richardson-era rebuild. The sesquicentennial also launched the 'History of a National Treasure' documentary project.
In 2021 Maryland agreed to pay $577 million over ten years to the state's four HBCUs — Morgan State among them — settling the lawsuit the Coalition for Equity and Excellence filed in 2006 claiming decades of underfunding. The case was compared to Brown v. Board of Education. Earl Richardson could not serve as a plaintiff as a state employee, but colleagues credited him as the lawsuit's visionary: 'He was armed with history,' said alumnus David Burton. The settlement, rooted in the 1990 student march, was the largest HBCU funding-equity win in American history.
In 2022 Dr. Melvin Miles retired after 49 years of service to the university, and Dr. Jorim E. Reid Sr. was appointed Director of Bands. Reid — a Florida A&M graduate with a doctorate from Boston University who had built programs at North Carolina Central and Fayetteville State — arrived with a national résumé and immediately took the band further. Under Reid, Morgan was invited to the Honda Battle of the Bands for the first time in school history. The appointment was covered as a passing of the torch between two eras of HBCU band royalty.
In June 2024 the Magnificent Marching Machine became the first HBCU band ever to perform at the D-Day 80th Anniversary commemoration in Normandy, France. More than 100 students marched through two French towns, played 'America the Beautiful' and 'Taps,' performed a 'Tribute to Fallen Americans,' and joined a wreath-laying ceremony for the fallen. Reid called it bigger than the band — his own grandfather had survived the Normandy invasion, and he told the students they were marching where 'there's blood in that sand.'
M3's international run continued in 2025 with a performance at the Venice Architecture Biennale, following earlier milestones: the first HBCU marching band from Maryland at the 2019 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a drumline performance at the White House under the Obama administration, the band's appearance in Chris Rock's film 'Head of State,' and the first-ever White House Juneteenth Concert. In September 2026 the band performed a 'Hamilton' tribute at Sunday Night Football's Giants–Cowboys opener at MetLife Stadium alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda and Penn State's Blue Band, commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Each appearance cemented M3 as an ambassador for Morgan on stages few college bands ever reach.
On September 13, 2025, Dr. Earl S. Richardson — president from 1984 to 2010 — died at 81. His 26-year presidency, the 'Morgan Renaissance,' doubled enrollment, won doctoral-research classification, and poured more than $500 million into new facilities. Under his successor David K. Wilson (president since 2010, extended through 2030), Morgan has pushed further: Carnegie R2 'High Research' classification, seven new research centers, 40+ new degree programs since 2020, two MacKenzie Scott gifts totaling $103 million, sponsored research topping $104.4 million in FY25, a $1.5 billion annual economic impact on Maryland, and nearly 12,000 students in Fall 2025 — five straight record years.
On January 1, 2026, the Magnificent Marching Machine marched the 5.5-mile Tournament of Roses Parade route in Pasadena, California, at the 137th Rose Parade — the latest line on a résumé that already included NFL games, presidential inaugurations, the World Series, and Macy's. The band also played the 45th Annual Bandfest at Pasadena City College two days earlier. With the Rose Parade done, M3 had now performed on nearly every iconic American stage that takes a marching band.
Morgan vs. Howard is the flagship MEAC rivalry — Baltimore vs. D.C., Bears vs. Bison, and it doubles as a band rivalry between M3 and the Showtime Marching Band. Howard won five straight meetings from October 21, 2017, before Morgan broke through 35–21 on November 23, 2024. The 2025 meeting was an instant classic: Howard's Homecoming at Greene Stadium went to overtime, with Howard escaping 33–27 after Morgan missed a 36-yard field goal in regulation and a 39-yarder in OT, despite an 81-yard touchdown run by Morgan QB Randy Moore II. The basketball rivalry got the national stage too — Howard edged Morgan 68–66 at the inaugural 2022 NBA HBCU Classic in Cleveland, with Kyle Foster hitting the game-winner.
🥁 Magnificent Marching Machine (M3)
M3 is treated as the heartbeat of the campus — the band students call themselves ambassadors for Morgan. Signature moments: first HBCU marching band from Maryland at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (2019), first HBCU band at the D-Day 80th anniversary parade in Normandy (2024), 2026 Rose Parade, and the 2026 Sunday Night Football 'Hamilton' halftime tribute. The drumline performed at the White House during the Obama administration, and the band has played NFL games, presidential inaugurations, and the World Series.
Retired in 2022 after 49 years of service to the university; built M3 into a nationally known HBCU band. His era included the 2019 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (first HBCU band from Maryland), the drumline's White House performance under Obama, and the band's appearance in Chris Rock's film 'Head of State.' (Start year c. 1973 derived from the 49-years-of-service figure.)
Director of Bands, DMA from Boston University, bachelor's from Florida A&M (1997); previously built band programs at North Carolina Central (Sound Machine) and Fayetteville State. First brought Morgan to the Honda Battle of the Bands, then to the D-Day Normandy commemoration (2024), the Venice Architecture Biennale (2025), the first-ever White House Juneteenth Concert, the 2026 Rose Parade, and the Sunday Night Football 'Hamilton' tribute with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Morgan is the birthplace of Iota Phi Theta — the Alpha chapter was founded here on September 19, 1963, which makes the yard sacred ground for the Centaurs. All nine Divine Nine orgs hold chapters, and the independent scene is unusually rich: the Council of Independent Organizations houses Groove Phi Groove's Mother Bear chapter, both Alpha Nu Omega chapters, the Kappa/TBS band-family chapters, and military drill orgs. Charter dates for most chapters were not verified from sources checked.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
Morgan built a new Police and Public Safety facility in 2019 to strengthen campus security, part of the Richardson-to-Wilson era capital program that rebuilt the university's infrastructure.
The Tyler Hall student services center opened as the front door of the university — admissions, enrollment, and student services under one roof. Named for alumnus Calvin Tyler and his wife Tina, it was the centerpiece of the 2010s building boom.
Opened Fall 2022: a new 670-bed residential building plus a 700-seat dining hall, the first major new housing in the Wilson-era expansion. It was built to absorb the enrollment surge that began breaking records.
The new Health and Human Services building houses the School of Community Health and Policy (public health, nursing, nutritional sciences, pre-physical therapy), the School of Social Work, medical laboratory sciences, the University Counseling Center, smart classrooms, and simulation labs. It anchored Morgan's health-sciences growth.
Legacy Hall, a 604-bed residential facility, opened in Fall 2024 as enrollment pushed toward 10,000 and then past it. It was one of several housing moves — including leased off-campus housing — to keep up with five straight record classes.
Major renovations to Baldwin Hall and Cummings House finished and reopened in Fall 2024, modernizing two of the campus's older residence buildings. Cummings House is named for Ada Rebecca Cummings, the 1922 Morgan graduate who became the first Black woman licensed to teach kindergarten in Baltimore.
Hurt Gymnasium — named for legendary coach Eddie Hurt — was revamped in 2024 with updated recreation and athletic spaces, part of the same year's facilities refresh.
Construction began in 2025 on a 246,000-square-foot Science Center to replace the obsolete 1919–1964 Science Complex (Carnegie, Calloway, Key, and Spencer halls). It will house the School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences and is the physical centerpiece of Morgan's drive to become an R1 research institution — which would make it the second HBCU ever, after Howard, to hold the designation.
Morgan upgraded the Gilliam Concert Hall and Recital Hall at the Murphy Fine Arts Center, the performance home that supports the music program behind the Magnificent Marching Machine.
Renovation of Harper-Tubman is underway and a new residential facility to replace O'Connell Hall is under construction. The work is financed through a housing strategy mixing state capital, HBCU CapFin loans (~$106 million invested), HEERF federal funds (~$30 million), and public-private partnerships with MEDCO totaling roughly $370 million.
Morgan unveiled Legends Plaza at Hughes Stadium: six-foot bronze statues of legendary coaches Edward P. Hurt and Earl C. Banks on four-foot pedestals, placed between Hurt Gymnasium and the Student Center at the stadium's front entrance. The plaza, inspired by alumnus George Nock's artistic vision, also carries bronze plaques honoring other Morgan sports legends along a 30-foot fence.
Morgan's most famous coaches are its legends: Edward P. Hurt (football/basketball/track, 1930–59) and Earl C. Banks (football, 1960–71), both honored with statues at Hughes Stadium. The university runs WEAA 88.9 FM — 'We Educate African Americans' — its NPR-affiliated public radio station broadcasting since January 10, 1977, and the student paper is The Spokesman. Athletic director and current head football coach were not verified in this pass.
President since 2010; contract extended through 2030. Drove the R2 research classification, record enrollment, and $103M in MacKenzie Scott gifts.
Leads the Magnificent Marching Machine since 2022; took M3 to Normandy, the Rose Parade, and Sunday Night Football.
Morgan sits in northeast Baltimore with a campus that wears its history on its buildings — halls named for Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Ada Cummings, the abolitionists and educators the university claims as its lineage. Game days at Hughes Stadium run through the band: the M3 is not halftime entertainment, it's the identity. Enrollment near 12,000 has made Morgan one of the largest HBCUs in the country, and the construction cranes on campus are part of the daily scenery — the Science Center, new dorms, and renovated halls arriving as fast as the record classes.