Hampton University Athletics

Hampton native Dr. Walter Lovett graduated from nearby George P. Phenix High School and college at Virginia State University where he quarterbacked the football team. Lovett earned his master's and Ph. D. degrees from Indiana. He coached football at Carver High School in Newport News where his team won their only VIA Championship. After coaching Virginia State, Lovett returned home and served as head coach and director of athletics at Hampton. Inheriting a team that had won just three games in the previous five seasons, his 1973 team finished with a 3-7 mark. The Pirates posted records of 5-5, 7-4 and 7-4 the next three years.  He was inducted into the Virginia State Hall of Fame (1990), the CIAA Hall of Fame (2014), the John B. McLendon Jr. Hall of Fame (2014) and the VIA Heritage Association Hall of Fame (2017).