(Club) Baseball’s Back at the “Mecca”

For former players and fans of Howard University baseball, Wednesday, May 22, 2002, was a somber day. Joining other institutions that have had to make cuts to their athletic programs, the Howard University athletic department announced it would discontinue its baseball program, as well as its wrestling program. While most schools that dropped sports did so to meet gender equity requirements or for financial reasons, Howard University indicated that these steps were taken due to inadequate facilities for practice and competition.

For a storied baseball program like Howard University’s, it was a tough pill to swallow. To this day, many former players remain among the Howard loyalists who yearn for varsity baseball to be reinstated.

That sentiment is also shared by current students who proudly wear the blue and red baseball jerseys of Howard University Club Baseball.

In 2023, a group of Howard University students, led by then-team president Julian Lee (now an alumnus and one of the coaches of the Bison club), took formal steps to establish a club baseball team. The team was admitted into the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA), beginning play in the spring of 2024. These steps included creating a petition to the NCBA signed by at least ten students, securing a student organization advisor, submitting a letter of intent from the advisor, and creating and submitting the club’s bylaws.

Now in its second season with the NCBA, the student-run club hopes to achieve far greater success than its predecessor clubs, the first of which was formed in 2009 but folded shortly into its inaugural season.

According to its website, the National Club Baseball Association (the official governing body for collegiate club baseball) was formed in 2000 with the mission to “provide collegiate student-athletes the opportunity to play competitive, organized college baseball and to continually enhance the experience for all participants.”

While not a university-sponsored and funded varsity sport, club baseball typically falls under the watchful eye of a school’s intramural/recreation department. At Howard University, financial support comes from the student senate, fundraising efforts, team members themselves, and friends of the program.

Since its founding, the NCBA has grown from its original 34 clubs to nearly 300 competing during the 2024–2025 school year. This figure represents approximately 7,500 college students who, according to the association, “get the opportunity to continue their competitive baseball careers and contend for a national championship.”

While most club baseball participants play solely for the love of the game and to prolong their playing careers while in school, the NCBA reports that 17 players to date have signed professional contracts with Major League Baseball-affiliated organizations. Some have been signed after moving from a club team to the school’s varsity team and vice versa.

At Howard University, Julian Lee and other ambitious Bison club team members hope that, baby step by baby step, baseball will one day return to campus as a varsity sport.

According to spokesperson and two-year team member Alafia Bailey, the goal is to rebuild Howard into an NCAA Division I baseball program. “We have to start somewhere, and this is a good place to do so. We have to build community support before we take that big step, and we’ve been doing just that. We’ve been successful by competing very well in our district (placing third and making a playoff appearance in 2023). We also have a great relationship with the Washington, D.C., community, specifically with the youth. We volunteer and coach kids on baseball every Monday at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy. We also mentor and tutor kids weekly with the Richmond public school system. The community is there, and the support at games is there. It really comes down to financial support.”

Entering the spring season, the Howard University club has a 1–2 record. Its sole victory came against National Junior College Athletic Association member Prince George’s Community College. Ironically, the coaching staff of the PGCC Owls includes Jimmy Williams, who was the head coach of Howard University’s varsity team when the program was discontinued in 2002.

The Howard University club practices and plays home games at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy field and Maury Wills Banneker Field.

To follow Howard University club baseball this spring, along with the season of the Florida A&M club team (the only other HBCU with a club team), visit our 2025 HBCU baseball team links page here.