SBJ ALL IN: The McLendon Foundation

The McLendon Torchbearers for the class of 2023-24 gathered at the McLendon Leadership Weekend in September in Cleveland.The McLendon Foundation

The McLendon Foundation was founded in 1999 by Mike Cleary shortly after the death of John McLendon, the Basketball Hall of Fame coach who became the first African American head coach in pro sports. Cleary was the general manager of the Cleveland Pipers of the now-defunct American Basketball League when he hired McLendon to that history-making role in 1962. When Cleary died in 2015, it was none other than a McLendon scholar who took the reins of the foundation.

“I am indebted to what Mr. Cleary did, and I’ve always been invested in seeing the foundation grow,” said Adrien Harraway, senior vice president at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, who now runs the McLendon Foundation as its director. Ishita Tibrewal, another McLendon scholar who is director of marketing and sponsorship analytics for NACDA, serves as assistant director for the nonprofit.

Two impactful programs are at the center of the foundation’s efforts, including the postgraduate scholarship program that allowed Harraway to earn his graduate degree from Arizona State in 2003. The scholarship is for minority candidates pursuing a master’s degree in a sports-related field. Eight $10,000 scholarships are awarded each year, plus one additional fully funded spot into UMass Amherst’s graduate program.

“Our focus is trying to provide access and opportunity for people that want to be leaders in sports,” Harraway said. “We want to make it hard for people to say they can’t find diverse talent.”

In 2020, the nonprofit created the Minority Leadership Initiative, designed to give participants practical, on-the-job experience at different campuses around the country. Originally funded by collegiate coaches, the program provides minorities with a yearlong employment opportunity, a robust professional development curriculum and access to a network of MLI alumni.

The idea for the initiative came from Kentucky coach John Calipari, who was moved to take tangible action to help level the playing field for minorities in the coaching ranks. Calipari helped fund the initiative.

The initiative has continued to grow since its 2020 launch; in its first year, it had 29 participants, followed by 42, 50 and 52 in each of the following three years, respectively.

“It not only jump-started careers of the young people that are in the program,” Harraway said, “but it reinvigorated the foundation and really moved the needle on our mission.”