Abraham Mitchell, also known as Mr. CIAA, is pictured in 2005. | Source: The Washington Post / Getty
The HBCU basketball community has lost one of its most loyal, and flamboyant, fans, according to reports that prompted an outpouring of condolences from in and around historically Black college circles.
Abraham “Ham” Mitchell, who earned the nickname of “Mr. CIAA” not only for being a mainstay at the annual Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament but also for dressing in custom-made suits corresponding with the conference’s teams’ colors, has died at the age of 95, several social media posts reported on Tuesday.
The CIAA is the nation’s oldest HBCU athletic conference.
CBS Sports journalist Sean Robertson and Steven Gaither, founder of HBCU Gameday – both HBCU graduates – were among the trusted sources reporting Mitchell’s death.
The Instagram page for the Virginia State University Band also posted a tribute to Mitchell, calling him “a true CIAA Legend.”
Mitchell has been attending the CIAA Tournament for nearly 50 years and once described to USA Today his wardrobe gameplan – bright suits bearing each team’s colors – as teams competed in the historic event.
“If I have enough time, I’ll make four changes,” Mitchell said in 2020. “(Sometimes) I’ll come back with five or six changes a night.”
By all accounts, Mitchell’s dedication to those suits was consistent with his devotion to the CIAA basketball tournament, which for years was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, home to the conference’s headquarters.
Mitchell explained in 2016 – the year he was inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame – that he either creates or designs the suits he became known for wearing at the basketball tournament.
“So far, as long as I’ve been coming, I’ve never seen anybody wear what I wore,” Mitchell told QCity Metro. He credited his mother, a seamstress, as his inspiration for why he “started designing myself for CIAA, something different each time I come.”
At the time, Mitchell estimated that he had up to 400 suits and boasted that he could go three years without ever wearing the same outfit twice. He said he could bring as many as 27 suits to any given tournament but admitted he may not end up wearing them all.
“It depends on how many I do per game and how many times I’m stopped (by fans),” Mitchell explained. “I have to work with time in order to change. I definitely change into the school colors (when teams are playing) and I wear miscellaneous colors during other times.”
In 2019, Mitchell was conspicuously absent from that year’s CIAA basketball tournament, causing a bit of a panic among fans who also attend the event in part to see what he will wear.
But the Richmond Free Press quickly quelled concerns about Mitchell, who lamented that he wasn’t in Charlotte because of a transit issue.
“My car was in the shop needing a front end alignment and my nephew arranged for someone else to drive me to Charlotte,” Mitchell told the Free Press. He said his nephew had been driving him from his native Suffolk, Virginia, to Charlotte for the CIAA basketball tournament since 1975.
But his nephew’s friend never arrived.
“I don’t think he knew the significance of my uncle’s appearance or his historical entertainment and engaging role at the tournament,” Peter Mitchell told the Free Press.
When he was inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame – an honor typically reserved for former athletes – Mitchell said he was “surprised, shocked” and had been busy designing the suit he planned to wear for the induction ceremony.
“I’ve got something they’ve never seen. I’ve been working on it for a while. It’s going to be an eye catcher. I have gold shoes, a gold hat, a white suit and a white and gold necktie with sequins,” Mitchell told the Free Press at the time.
He later added that his induction into the CIAA Hall of Fame “makes me really happy.”
Noting that his nephew, Peter, previously played basketball at Norfolk State University – an original member of the CIAA – Mitchell explained how his tradition of dressing up in teams’ colors came to be.
He said he started by wearing a shirt and tie bearing Norfolk State’s colors of green and gold. Later, he decided, to take it up another notch by changing clothes at halftime to bear the colors of the opposing team.
Now, Mr. Mitchell said, “I sometimes do eight” changes of clothes in a given day at the CIAA Tournament.
No longer does he have to run into bathrooms to dress and re-dress. He said CIAA officials now provide him with his own dressing room.
Mitchell was just as much of a draw for CIAA attendees as the basketball games were as he was frequently stopped and asked to take photos and sign autographs. He said he showed special attention to children and his fellow senior citizens.
In 2016, he said he was unsure if he’d ever “retire” from attending the CIAA tournament.
“This is something I’ve enjoyed doing,” he said.
Outside of the CIAA basketball tournament, little other information about Mitchell has been reported.
He always remained cagey about when he was born – “I don’t never tell my age. I just say I’m old” – but a writer for the Carolina Blitz sports website claimed in a 2018 tribute that Mitchell worked in a funeral home: “I guess you can say he’s dressed to kill.”
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