Over the past eight decades, numerous organizations have taken turns honoring athletes and coaches for their accomplishments. Most did not survive the test of time and have since ceased to exist, but for more than eight decades, the Pigskin Club of Washington, INC. has thrived, celebrating the achievements of African Americans in sports.
The Pigskin Club was initially formed in 1938 by Dr. Charles B. Fisher and 18 other African American professionals to honor football players and coaches from the DMV for their accomplishments on the gridiron.
About 87 years later and the Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C., has not only withstood the test of time; it has grown and evolved.
During that evolution, the Pigskin Club has grown to include other sports. Working from the strong foundation that was laid, several have picked up the baton and continued to grow. It slowly incorporated other sports, including basketball, track and field, volleyball, tennis, lacrosse and baseball.
The highlight was the addition of All-Met honors to the senior football, and later to boys’ and girls’ basketball teams. Later, standouts from the various local and national college and professional teams were included in the honors. Finally, the club recognized community leaders and organizations for their service and contributions to sports and the community.
This year’s event paid tribute to A.B. Williamson, a past president of the Pigskin Club who was a part of the transformation up close and personal and recently died.
Before his death, Williamson gave his perspective on the organization’s transformation.
Williamson was a former high school basketball coach at Eastern High School and later known as the most successful coach at Howard University before transitioning to athletics and academics.
“Any organization that has success has to go through some transformation,” Williamson told The Informer. “When we decided to revamp the organization to include sports other than football and make two separate awards banquets (fall and spring), it was Art Linder (first vice president) and I who thought that it would be the best thing at that time. Then, we added the academic piece. There were a lot of things that I saw and experienced in academics and athletics that brought that about.”
Continuing to ‘Honor Achievements Year In and Year Out’
This year’s fall awards banquet was held Friday, Feb. 21 at the Pryzbyla Center on the campus of Catholic University. Sixty athletes, coaches and community leaders were honored with family, administrators and supporters in attendance.
College teams who were honored included the Howard University women’s soccer team, which won its first-ever NEC (Northeast Conference) championship; the UDC women’s track and field team, champions of the East Coast Conference (ECC) and the UDC men’s soccer team won its first ECC championship.
In the high schools, the head coach and a senior athlete from the following sports were honored for their success this past season in their respective sports: girls’ and boys’ cross country; girls’ field hockey, boys’ golf, boys’ and girls’ soccer and girls’ volleyball. All the high school honorees are seniors.
For football, 24 athletes — 12 on offense and 12 on defense — were honored.
Brosnan Dukes of Dunbar High School was awarded the Charles Richard Drew Award for Offensive Player of the Year and Bryce Jenkins of Friendship Collegiate was Defensive Player of the Year.
For the coaches, Bill McGregor of DeMatha Catholic High School and Maurice “Bink” Vaughn of Dunbar Senior High School were named the Edwin B. Henderson co-coaches of the year.
“What’s truly amazing about the Pigskin Club, is it continues to honor achievements year in and year out,” said McGregor, who has coached at the Hyattsville School for over 40 years and has won over 300 games during his career. “My first Pigskin Club awards banquet came a minute ago, in 1982. We need to take the time to honor that this organization continues to not only recognize achievement; it also continues to grow with time.”
The Pigskin Club Special Recognition Award was presented to Desiree Abrams, who is regarded as an NFL Flag Ambassador for her work with the sports of girls’ and women’s flag football and to Boris “Bo” Cheek, who has 30 years under his belt as an NFL official and recently officiated his second Super Bowl.
“As a D.C. native, it is certainly an honor to be recognized for my work as an NFL official,” said Cheek, who attended St. Anthony’s High School in Northeast, Washington before going on to graduate from Morgan State University. “I have known about the Pigskin Club for years, but to be recognized with this honor is truly special.”
Colonel John W. Posey was one of the original group of founders of the organization. The organization created an award in his honor to professional athletes.
This year’s Posey recipients were D.C. Divas standouts, Amand Congialdi and Gabrielle Fleming, who were named the 2024 Outstanding Professional Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, respectively.
For the male athletes, the honorees were Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels for offense and linebacker Bobby Wagner for defense.
For Gildon Kirk, Bethesda Chevy Chase cross country coach, it was his first knowledge of the Pigskin Club. Inspired by the event, he left some words of wisdom to the attendees.
“I am honored to be honored here at this event,” said Kirk, the Pigskin Club Coach of the Year. “We have to make sure that the young people that we are blessed to coach and lead understand the value of the Pigskin Club and what it represents. In this day and time, they need to know how fortunate they are to be honored at an event like this that brings together so many important people who are making a difference. Hopefully, that is the takeaway. We all continue to work to support the Pigskin Club to maintain its legacy. “