Morehouse College’s Grady Brewer is the recipient of the 2018 Clarence Gaines award. 

 

Now in his 18th season at Morehouse, Brewer turned in one of the best regular seasons in school history.  The Maroon Tigers entered the SIAC Tournament with an impressive 24-1 overall record and 18-1 conference play.

 

Morehouse had a school-record 18 consecutive wins and was No. 1 in the NCAA South Region for several weeks, climbing as high as No. 6 nationally during the season. The Maroon Tigers season ended in the first round of the Division II South Region Tournament. 

It was the first time in school history that Morehouse hosted a tournament game. The Maroon Tigers finished the season 25-3.

One of the true legends of all-time. Gaines retired from Winston-Salem State University in 1993 with a record of 828-446. At the time he was the winningest active basketball coach in NCAA history. Gaines was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

During his 47-year tenure as coach and athletic director at WSSU he coached professional basketball greats Cleo Hill (first African-American from an historically Black college and university to be drafted No. 1 by the National Basketball Association, St. Louis Hawks, 1961) and Earl "The Pearl" Monroe.