Basketball Legacy Weekend Leads to Mass Photo Identification Project

On the weekend of January 21st and 22nd, WSSU honored several of its alumni basketball players during “Basketball Legacy Weekend”. On Friday the 21st, the Department of Athletics held a legacy basketball game. The WSSU Archives took the opportunity to set up a photo identification table in the lobby of the Gaines Center.


As the C.E. Gaines collection is being re-processed, it became apparent that many of the images in the collection were unidentified. These images were scanned and printed on paper and included in a binder based on the type of image it was. The images were broken down into six categories. The images fit into one of the following categories, Male or Female and then Action Shots, Individual Portraits, and Team Shots.

The copies of the images were then brought to the legacy game to allow students, staff, families, and former players to view. They were asked to identify, on the images, any information they could remember, whether it be a date, player, or game. The identifications are now being verified by the WSSU Archives using yearbooks and other material.

The process was a great success and as a result we now have a collection of images that are largely identified.

Below is an example of the success of the project. Thanks to the help of several former players, we were able to identify all three WSSU players in the photo quickly and efficiently.

Sunny Riggell (#13), Joe Cunningham (#25), and Willis Bennett (#45)