Howard club tennis players came to College Park expecting a tournament. Instead, the night before the first serve, their president found a racist graphic tucked inside the event packet.
The University of Maryland has suspended its club tennis team indefinitely after members emailed tournament materials with imagery resembling Ku Klux Klan hoods to visiting schools. Howard University flagged the image first. Now its interim president and its student-athletes want more than a blanket apology.
What Howard Club Tennis Found in the Packet
Toni Rachal, president of Howard’s club team, was reviewing a shared Google document Friday evening. It held routine details. Match schedules, a campus map, logistics for the two-day Fall Invitational. Then she saw it.
According to the Howard club, two pointed hoods sat beneath the Maryland club tennis logo. They replaced part of the Crossland arms, the red-and-white quadrants on the Maryland state flag. The club called the image a recognizable symbol of white supremacy and organized violence.
Rachal wrote to Maryland directly and demanded action. By Saturday, the school’s Recreation and Wellness division had pulled the entire club. As a result, the Terrapins forfeited every match. The tournament went on without them.
Howard player Kobii Forney told WUSA9 he questioned a staff member about the graphic on site. He also pointed out that Howard requires organizers to send event materials to a campus liaison before anything goes out. Maryland’s student-run club clearly had no such check in place.
Maryland Moves Fast, but Questions Remain
RecWell director Brent Flynn sent a letter to the Howard club calling the imagery “awful and unacceptable.” He acknowledged that only a few students may have been involved. Even so, he said the full team would stay suspended while the Office of Student Conduct investigates. Campus police are also looking into the matter.
University spokesman Jordan Dunklee said Maryland is “horrified” and offered a formal apology for the harm. Meanwhile, UMD club leaders met with the other team captains over the weekend to take responsibility.
Still, Howard wants answers. Its statement asks three pointed questions. Why was the image in the materials at all? How long had it been sitting in UMD documents? And what review process let it stay there?
Those questions matter. A graphic like this does not slip into a document by accident, then get emailed to clubs across the region. Somebody made it. Somebody else saw it and said nothing.
Frederick Calls the Imagery Rooted in Hatred
Howard interim president Wayne A. I. Frederick also weighed in. He called the imagery deeply offensive and racist. At the same time, he credited Maryland for acting quickly once the graphic surfaced.
His students came to compete, he wrote. Instead, they were met with a symbol tied to racial terror. Frederick also connected the moment to a bigger picture. That same Saturday, the United Nations human rights office condemned racist messages aimed at Coco Gauff.
The comparison lands. Black players at every level of the sport, from Friday-night club courts to Grand Slam stadiums, keep running into the same wall.
What the Howard Club Is Demanding
The Howard club laid out four specific demands in a statement Monday:
- An official public apology to Howard from UMD and its club tennis executive board
- An investigation into who created the document
- Sensitivity training for UMD club leaders and advisers
- A donation of tournament funds to the National Museum of African American History and Culture
In addition, the club noted that Maryland’s general apology falls short. In its view, true accountability has yet to come. Those demands were first detailed by The Baltimore Banner, which also pressed UMD on how long the graphic had circulated.
A Weekend That Still Meant Something
Here is the part that almost got buried. Howard club tennis posted its best result since the program started in 2021.
That finish carries real weight. The club grew out of a casual Friday-night hitting session students nicknamed Tennis Under the Stars. Gjianni White and a handful of classmates built it with help from the varsity coaching staff. Their first competitive event as a team? The Fall Invitational at Maryland.
So the Bison went back to the same courts where their competitive story began. Then they played their best tennis yet. They did it while carrying something no other team in the draw had to carry.
A Familiar Pattern for Bison Athletes
Unfortunately, this is not new territory. In 2022, Howard’s women’s lacrosse team faced racist and sexist heckling before a game at Presbyterian College. That incident also ended with apologies, statements and an investigation.
Four years later, the setting has moved from a sideline to a shared Google doc. The message looks the same. For ongoing coverage of incidents like these, keep up with our HBCU sports reporting.
What Comes Next
Maryland has not said when the club tennis program might return. The student conduct investigation remains open, and no individual students have been named.
For Howard club tennis, the next step is simple. The team wants to know who made the graphic, how long it existed and what changes will follow. A forfeited weekend, in their eyes, is not the end of this story. It is the start.
