Norfolk, Virginia · Founded 1935 · Spartans (Spiro the Spartan)
“The Green and Gold on Corprew Avenue — where the band might outdraw the game and a 15-seed can still shock the world.”
The origin footage: the Legion performing the song that became the most famous stand tune in HBCU band culture, from a 1984 game vs Livingston. (Verified via direct YouTube page load.)
The Legion plays Michael Jackson's 'Off The Wall' at the 2009 Labor Day Classic battle vs Virginia State.
The march selection 'Malaguena' from the same 2009 Labor Day Classic vs VSU — the band-battle weekend with Virginia State.
Halftime showdown: the Spartan Legion vs Howard's Showtime band in Washington, DC, September 17, 2011.
Full field show at the 2017 Queen City Battle of the Bands in Charlotte.
The complete Bandfest set (Dec 30, 2022): Million Dollar Funk Squad drumline feature, Hot Ice dancers, closing with 'Behold.'
The Legion marching the 134th Tournament of Roses Parade down Colorado Boulevard on January 2, 2023 — the biggest performance in band history. (ID from the wbsnsports dedicated embed page; YouTube page did not load directly.)
Another cut of the Spartan Legion's 2023 Rose Parade performance.
WAVY TV-10's local news report on the Legion showing out in the Rose Parade.
13News Now on the band's return home from Pasadena — capping the season the Legion was voted the best HBCU band in the nation. (ID from the hbcuconnect dedicated article; YouTube page did not load directly.)
Killa Kev Productions' 4K cut of the Legion's Rose Parade march. (ID from the wbsnsports dedicated embed page; YouTube page did not load directly.)
Behind the scenes of French electronic duo Justice's official 'Heavy Metal' video — built around 220 members of the Spartan Legion, rehearsed in five days. (Verified via direct YouTube page load; NSU role confirmed by Dancing Astronaut.)
1968 — comedian, actor, and director; a longtime Hollywood presence
actor, writer, stand-up comedian — Leon on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm
1969 — NBA champion with the Bucks and Bullets; one of the great CIAA-era pros
1969 first-round NBA draft pick (Chicago Bulls) and Rucker Park streetball legend; teamed with Dandridge at NSU
2012 — NBA center (Magic, Knicks); dropped 26 points and 14 rebounds on Missouri in the 2012 upset
1984 — NBA guard/forward for the Jazz, Kings, and SuperSonics
NFL defensive end, most of a 10-year career with the San Diego Chargers; Grey Cup champion with Edmonton before the NFL
12 NFL seasons as a defensive back for the Falcons, Saints, and Cardinals
1972 — NFL defensive back for the Patriots (1972–75) and Browns (1976–82)
2009 — NFL safety for the Browns, Jaguars, and Lions
1995 — NFL wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens; Arena Football's San Jose SaberCats
journalist (Virginian-Pilot, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Post) and author of the bestseller Makes Me Wanna Holler
lawyer, author, activist — founder of TransAfrica
Democratic state senator representing Virginia's 5th Senatorial District; later professor emeritus at NSU
1984 — federal judge, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
2003 — first African-American woman to earn a PhD in astrophysics from Yale (2014)
1964 — ninth director of the NASA Glenn Research Center
1971 — first woman and first African American to direct NOAA Corps Operations and the NOAA Commissioned Corps
Bahamian track sprinter; Olympic gold medalist (2000)
percussionist and member of the jazz quartet Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
On September 18, 1935, in the teeth of the Great Depression, the Norfolk Unit of Virginia Union University opened its doors with 85 students. Samuel Fischer Scott, a Virginia Union alumnus and Portsmouth native, served as the first director, and his job was not glamorous: keep the school solvent. The whole idea was that Black students in the Hampton Roads area had nowhere local to go to college, so the community collected coins and built them a school anyway.
Dr. Lyman Beecher Brooks, another Virginia Union alumnus, succeeded Scott as director in 1938 and would shape the school for the next 37 years. He steered it through name changes, legislative acts, and the move to a permanent campus. Brooks went on to serve as provost from 1963 to 1969 and then as the school's first president from 1969 to 1975. The campus library now carries his name.
The school cut its tie to Virginia Union and stood on its own as Norfolk Polytechnic College. The new name reflected the practical, trade-and-technical focus of the early curriculum — this was a school built to put working people in working jobs. Independence was short-lived in one sense: within two years, an act of the Virginia legislature folded the college into Virginia State College as a division of it.
By act of the Virginia Legislature, the school became a part of Virginia State College (now Virginia State University), operating as its Norfolk division. For a quarter-century the college grew in the shadow of Petersburg, building faculty, students, and a separate campus identity. By 1950, the 15th anniversary, the faculty had grown to fifty and enrollment to 1,018 — a school on its way somewhere.
The college's athletic teams adopted the 'Spartan' name and identity. The green-and-gold Spartan would become one of the most recognizable brands in Black college sports. Everything the school is today — the band, the Battle of the Bay, the homecoming tailgates — traces back to this identity choice.
The City of Norfolk provided the college a permanent site on Corprew Avenue, on the former Memorial Park Golf Course — land the city sold the school for one dollar. Brown Hall, originally called Tidewater Hall, opened as the first permanent building on the new campus. The campus now spans 134 acres and 31 buildings, but it started with this one hall on a golf course.
The college granted its first bachelor's degrees. What began as a two-year unit of Virginia Union was now a full four-year degree-granting institution. The first graduating classes were small, but they proved the point the founders had made in 1935: give this community a school and it will finish what it starts.
Norfolk State joined the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the historic Black college athletic conference, and stayed for 34 years (1962–1996). The CIAA years built the rivalries and the band culture that still define the school. The Spartans' first big football moment of the modern era came in this era: the 1984 CIAA championships in both football and basketball.
The college divided from Virginia State College and became independent Norfolk State College. That same year it earned accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, with enrollment at 5,400 students. Dr. Lyman Beecher Brooks became the school's first president after 37 years of service. Independence meant the school finally controlled its own future — and it meant it had to raise its own money, too.
The Spartan 'Legion' marching band was founded, and Ernie 'Chief' Fears — hired in 1974 as Director of Bands — built it into a national name. It was Fears who created 'Behold, the Green and Gold,' the fight song still played at every NSU athletic event and gathering. The Legion would go on to originate the HBCU anthem 'Neck,' march the Rose Parade, and appear in a Grammy-nominated artist's music video.
The first master's degrees were awarded in Communications, with Social Work following in 1976 — graduate education at NSU starts here. Dr. Harrison Benjamin Wilson Jr. succeeded Brooks as president after Wilson's own long climb through the school. Wilson would lead NSU for 22 years, through the 50th anniversary and the climb toward university status, and the administration building now carries his name.
The General Assembly of Virginia granted the college university status, and it changed its name to Norfolk State University. The upgrade recognized what the school had become: a multi-school institution with graduate programs, research facilities, and a national profile. From 85 students in 1935 to a university in 44 years.
At an away game against archrival Hampton, Legion member Tony Anderson brought Cameo's 'Talkin' Out the Side of Your Neck' into the band room, and band director Emery Fears let him run with it. The Legion debuted the song and the neck-chop dance move at the Battle of the Bay — and beat Hampton 15–7 the same day. 'Neck' caught fire across HBCU marching culture and is now arguably the most famous stand tune in the band world. 1984 was a banner year all around: NSU won the CIAA basketball and football titles too.
Norfolk State celebrated its 50th anniversary with a year of observances and enrollment at 7,200. The school that had started with 85 students in the Depression was now one of Virginia's two public HBCUs. The anniversary year was a coming-out party for the grown-up institution.
Enrollment reached 9,112, the peak of the school's 1990s growth wave. The campus was buzzing — bigger classes, more dorms, more visibility in the Hampton Roads region. The 1990s turned NSU from a regional college into a university the state had to take seriously.
Marie Valentine McDemmond became NSU's third president upon the retirement of Harrison Wilson, serving until 2005. Athletics made the leap that same era: NSU left the CIAA for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and moved up to NCAA Division I, the FCS level. The jump to Division I meant bigger stages, bigger bills, and bigger exposure — the groundwork for 2012's moment.
Carolyn Winstead Meyers began service as the fourth president on July 1, 2006, after a brief interim by Alvin J. Schexnider. The decade that followed was rocky: Tony Atwater, announced as fifth president in 2011, was removed by the Board of Visitors on August 23, 2013. In December 2013 the regional accreditor placed the university on probation for financial and governance issues. The probation was lifted two years later, but the episode cost the school momentum and public confidence.
As a 15 seed in the school's first-ever NCAA men's basketball tournament appearance, Norfolk State stunned #2 seed Missouri 86–84 in Omaha. Kyle O'Quinn went for 26 points and 14 rebounds — his 20th double-double of the season — and took the lead for good on a three-point play with 34 seconds left. It was only the fifth 15-over-2 upset in tournament history, eleven years to the day after MEAC rival Hampton had done the same to Iowa State. The NCAA later named it one of the 35 greatest moments in March Madness history. Back home, the Student Center crowd lost its mind, and the school started selling 'This Was No Upset' T-shirts before the ink was dry.
Eddie N. Moore Jr., named interim president in September 2013, became the 6th president on January 10, 2016, after the probation was lifted. His tenure steadied the finances and governance that had been in trouble. When Moore announced his retirement in late 2017, the board named Dr. Melvin Stith as interim president, who took office January 1, 2018.
The Spartan Legion was featured in the official music video for 'Heavy Metal' by the French electronic duo Justice — a 220-member HBCU marching band marching in formation behind razor-sharp electro synths, rehearsed in five days. The video put the Green and Gold in front of a global audience. The Legion had already done the Honda Battle of the Bands in 2007 and 2008; this was a different kind of stage entirely.
On June 24, 2019, Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston — arriving from her job as senior vice president for student life at Ohio State — became NSU's seventh president. She is the first woman to hold the job permanently. Her tenure has brought big donations, STEM investment, celebrity commencement speakers, and a Board of Visitors contract extension through 2027.
In December 2020, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave Norfolk State $40 million — at the time the second-largest single gift in school history. The unrestricted money landed during the COVID era and changed what the university could plan. Adams-Gaston had talked since day one about building the school's STEM profile; now the money was real.
On January 2, 2023, the Spartan Legion marched in the 134th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California — the biggest stage in the band's history. Associate director Stephanie Sanders heard a three-decade parade veteran say no band in 36 years had given a better presentation. The Legion had earned it: Pharrell's Mighty Dream forum, the Missy Elliott Boulevard celebration, the Rivers Casino opening — and an HBCU Buzz poll vote as the best HBCU band in the nation to close the 2022–23 season.
December 2024 was a headline month: the school hired former NFL star quarterback and Newport News native Michael Vick as head football coach, and hosted Hampton Roads-raised music legends Missy Elliott and Pharrell Williams as commencement speakers. In October the State Council of Higher Education approved certification of a Joint School of Public Health run with Old Dominion University. The state also approved a new fine arts building. NSU was officially in its bag.
For its 90th anniversary, NSU launched its second-ever capital campaign aiming to raise $90 million — and in November 2025 received another MacKenzie Scott gift, $50 million, the largest single donation in school history. On April 18, 2025, the university broke ground on a $118 million, 131,000-square-foot science building (planetarium, greenhouse, makerspace) set to open in fall 2027, replacing the 1966 Roy A. Woods building. Endowment stood at $109.5 million.
In January 2026 the Spartan Legion closed Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger's inaugural parade with 'We Are Family.' On September 19, 2026, the Spartans beat Hampton 42–21 in the latest Battle of the Bay, taking the all-time series lead to 31–29–1 across 61 meetings. And in late September 2026, NSU hosted the 111th annual ASALH conference at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, with President Adams-Gaston telling the crowd: 'We were born in the Great Depression... when some people were jumping out of buildings, our people were collecting coins to start a university.'
The defining HBCU rivalry in the Hampton Roads region, played since October 19, 1963 — when NSU won 42–0 in the first meeting. The series was named 'Battle of the Bay' in 1988 by the two schools' sports information directors, LeCounte Conaway (HU) and John Holley (NSU). Through 2026 the teams have met 61 times with Norfolk State leading 31–29–1; the latest meeting (September 19, 2026) was a 42–21 Spartan win. Hampton left the MEAC for the Big South in 2018, pausing the series until it resumed in 2021. The halftime showdown between the Spartan Legion and Hampton's Marching Force is as watched as the game itself — and in 1984 the Legion debuted Cameo's 'Neck' at Hampton in a 15–7 Spartan win, launching the most famous stand tune in HBCU band culture.
NSU's in-state Black college rivalry with Virginia State — the school that once ran NSU as its Norfolk division. The Labor Day Classic matchup has been a standing early-season date, and the band battle between the Spartan Legion and the Trojan Explosion at the Classic is one of the great HBCU band weekends; 2009 footage of the Legion playing 'Off the Wall' and 'Malaguena' against Virginia State is still passed around.
Old Dominion is the crosstown school in Norfolk — a natural geographic rival across town. The two now share more than proximity: in October 2024 the state approved a Joint School of Public Health operated by NSU and ODU together. The rivalry on the field and court is real, but the partnership in the classroom is the newer story.
🥁 Spartan Legion Marching Band · since 1974
The Spartan Legion calls itself the biggest organization on campus, and nobody argues. The band invented 'Neck' in 1984 at the Battle of the Bay and it became the most famous stand tune in HBCU culture; performed in Justice's official 'Heavy Metal' music video in 2018 with 220 members; marched the 134th Tournament of Roses Parade on January 2, 2023 — the biggest performance in band history. The Legion hosts Battlefest and did the Honda Battle of the Bands in 2007 and 2008. Rogers Nathan Brown, hired by Fears as assistant band director in 1980, arranged the Legion's sound for 42 years until his death in June 2026. William Swaringer, the one-man pep band of the early 1970s who played 'When the Saints Come Marching In' solo at games, is remembered as a forefather of the Legion.
Founding architect of the Spartan Legion. Created 'Behold, the Green and Gold' and gave the Legion the freedom that produced the 'Neck' phenomenon; honored on the Virginia House of Delegates floor in 2025.
Director of Bands through at least the 2023 Rose Parade season; led the Legion's 2022–23 run of Pharrell's Mighty Dream forum, Missy Elliott Boulevard, the Rose Parade, and the 'best HBCU band in the nation' HBCU Buzz poll win. Exact succession between Fears and Beathea is not fully verified from opened sources.
Associate director during the Rose Parade era; carried the band's presentation standard on the national stage.
All nine NPHC organizations hold chapters at NSU. Greek life is a visible force on the yard — Greek Night basketball games, homecoming-week step shows, and new-member presentations are campus fixtures. The independent scene includes professional, music, and military drill orgs. Note: a 2021 NPHC intake guide found during research belongs to NORTHWESTERN State University (Louisiana), not Norfolk State — its chapter names were excluded.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
New student apartments that expanded residential life beyond the older dorms, part of the 2000s housing push.
Applied-research center named for NSU's third president, giving the university a dedicated home for contract research and labs.
A purpose-built police facility on campus — the school was investing in its own public-safety infrastructure.
The three-story student center opened in September 2009 with a game room, dining area, bookstore, wellness/workout facility, student lounges, and administrative offices. It became the daytime heart of campus — and the room that erupted on March 16, 2012, when the Missouri upset became official.
A new library named for the school's first president — the academic centerpiece of the modern campus.
Construction completed in January 2015, housing nursing and general classrooms — a direct investment in the school's health-sciences pipeline.
Opened fall 2017: a three-story, 154,000-square-foot academic building housing the School of Business, College of Liberal Arts, and the Mass Communication and Math departments — plus a mainstage theater, studio theater, amphitheater, costume and scene shops, and drama faculty offices. The arts and the business school under one roof.
Construction began in 2019 on a 193,424-square-foot residential facility with a central two-story amenity space and 740 beds for first-year students — the biggest dorm project in school history.
The state approved a new fine arts building for the university — a long-term bet on the arts side of the campus that the Legion and theater programs anchor.
Groundbreaking April 18, 2025 on a 131,376-square-foot, four-story science building — labs, classrooms, planetarium, greenhouse, makerspace — set to open fall 2027, replacing the 1966 Roy A. Woods Science Building. The single biggest capital project in school history, and the physical center of the STEM push.
The Legion's bench runs deep: Stephanie Sanders as associate director, and the late Rogers Nathan Brown's 42 years of arrangements. Faculty history includes composer Adolphus Hailstork as composer-in-residence, psychologist Na'im Akbar, and Olympic gold medalist Steve Riddick as a former coach. The football stadium is named for William 'Dick' Price, the legendary Spartan coach.
7th president since June 24, 2019; first woman in the role permanently. Former Ohio State senior VP for student life; served on the NCAA Board of Governors and Biden's HBCU advisory board.
Hired December 2024. The Newport News native, 13-year NFL quarterback, 4x Pro Bowler, and 2025 College Football Hall of Fame inductee took over the Spartans program.
With the program since 2007 as an assistant — his first recruit was Kyle O'Quinn — and head coach since 2013. Took the Spartans 16–0 in MEAC play in 2012–13.
Led the Spartan Legion through its biggest seasons, including the 2023 Rose Parade.
NSU historian who moderated the HBCU presidents panel at the 111th ASALH conference in Norfolk in September 2026.
Students call NSU a family campus — 'huge, loud and most importantly spirited.' The marching band is the biggest organization on campus and the main reason a lot of people come to games. Homecoming is the gravitational center of the year, and students insist NYTHC hits different from the other HBCU homecomings: 'everyone is so friendly and personable, and people actually have fun.' The mass communications program is a quiet pipeline — students say 'most of the news reporters on television went to Norfolk State.' All nine NPHC orgs are active, 63 student organizations run, and the Green and Gold shows up everywhere.