Here’s how Cheyney’s Cope Hall kept its own score on the final night as a hallowed gymnasium

Maybe the old barn just wanted the last laugh.

Over the years, Cope Hall has pretty much seen it all. This last night, the sloped metal roof kept in all the heat and noise for one final Cheyney University men’s and women’s doubleheader.

The parking lots outside were full Monday, students inside making a perfect racket. Many old Cheyney ballplayers found seats in the bleachers, bringing their own memories back, some wearing old and priceless letter jackets. A few men wore T-shirts letting the youngsters know they’d played in this gym for the great John Chaney himself.

The scoreboard just decided it had seen enough. It was good through the women’s game, a 64-63 thriller against Bryant & Stratton College of Syracuse, N.Y., a couple of Cheyney shots falling off the rim right before the buzzer, denying a feel-good comeback for the home team.

The scoreboard hung on to 64-63 right through the men’s warmups. Unplug it, and rev it up again … still 64-63. Everyone with working knowledge of such things gave a try at resetting it, including Cheyney men’s coach Terrell Stokes, who went over to a fuse box and tried to start things all over.

Nope, the scoreboard persisted.

Let the record show that the final game in the six-decade history of Cope Hall was played with the two big scoreboards on the walls turned off … score and time were kept electronically at the table, start time was delayed for 30 minutes.

Somehow, it was kind of perfect. In case anyone had any doubt: Time to move on.

Cheyney, which has fought back from the brink of oblivion as an institution, isn’t giving up on basketball. It put this out a couple of years ago:

“As a part of the State System’s capital project process, Cheyney received a capital appropriation of $48 million to replace its outdated gymnasium (Cope Hall).”

According to a school spokesperson this week, “Cheyney anticipates that Cope Hall will be razed this summer. The new sports complex is projected to be complete in late 2024, early 2025, pending final land development approval from the township.”

Where will Cheyney play next season or even into the following season?

“Not sure yet,” Stokes said. “Trying to find a venue. It’s not going to be on campus.”

Just getting a schedule together is a challenge already, since Cheyney left the NCAA, and thus the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, in 2018.

Stokes states the aim now as simple: “Cheyney is getting back on the map.”

» READ MORE: Balancing the Equation: 185 years of struggle for an equitable education at America's first HBCU

The head coach never left it. His own lineage is special. Stokes was the point guard for an undefeated Simon Gratz High team that featured Rasheed Wallace and was rated tops in the country. Then three years starting at point guard for Maryland, including for two Terrapins Sweet 16 teams.

Moving out of a historic building? Stokes has seen firsthand how time marches on, that Maryland no longer plays in historic Cole Field House, but across campus at the Xfinity Center.

Looking to be a head coach after years as a Division I and Division II assistant, Stokes took this job just before the start of 2021-22. He mentioned this week how Tubby Smith, one of his own mentors, once told him, “You always want to take a job that nobody wants.”

The program had been struggling for years. Why did Stokes want it?

“I mean, I just think it’s the overall aspect of the university,” Stokes said of the oldest HBCU still in operation in the country. “I think the president did a great job keeping the doors open, keeping everybody employed, bringing athletics back.”

Replacing Cope Hall? Stokes said it’s necessary.

“Oh, it’s time, it’s definitely time,” said Jim Wright, sitting in the last row with old teammate David Kennard, captain and point guard of the 1965 team.

“We got it going,” Kennard said of that era, winning PSAC titles pre-Chaney, and he did agree: Time to move on from Cope Hall.

“Those locker rooms are disgusting,” Kennard said.

There are some who argue vehemently that while a new facility should be built, Cope Hall itself must be saved. LeRoy McCarthy, class of ‘92, is one of the leaders of this effort.

“I along with many other Cheyney Alumni, Students, and Supporters … are attempting to create an amicable path forward for preserving Cope Hall, Cheyney history, and building for the future,” McCarthy wrote in an email this week. “Please note: The PA State Historic Preservation Office findings are that Cope Hall is eligible for listing in the National Register District.”

The history reached its high point under two coaches who went on to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. John Chaney coached Cheyney’s men, winning the 1978 NCAA Division II national title, while Vivian Stringer coached Cheyney’s women. Often, they practiced together. When the NCAA held its first women’s championship in 1982, Cheyney was in the championship game.

“His style became my own,” Stringer said in 2021 after Chaney died. “We thought alike. We taught alike. We practiced alike.”

Good lord, if these particular walls could talk.

“When you came to practice the first day, he assumed you knew nothing about basketball,” said Keith Johnson, former Cheyney player, and head coach himself, about John Chaney a couple of days after Chaney died. “He went over it all, so you had no excuses, no, ‘Coach, I didn’t know.’”

Stokes is indirectly part of Chaney’s lineage since he played for Bill Ellerbee at Gratz, and while Ellerbee didn’t play basketball when he himself went to Cheyney, he had been Chaney’s assistant at both Gratz and Temple.

» READ MORE: Every time you thought John Chaney was crazy, he knew exactly what he was doing | Mike Jensen

Ellerbee was there Monday night. This last night, Cheyney jumped to a 12-0 lead over Bryant & Stratton and was up 10 at halftime, but the visitors had more depth, and eventually, Cheyney’s six players wore down. The scoreboard couldn’t show it but the other guys won by 10. “They did a good job,” Stokes said later of his team. “If we don’t run out of gas, we win by 15.”

The coach added about recruiting, “The cavalry’s on the way.”

Since the game had been late getting started, the old grads in the last bleacher row got out ahead of the final score. They’d seen what they’d come to see. They’d cheered the smart plays and winced if a pass shouldn’t have been thrown. They saw the banners over by the American flag that celebrated league titles in ‘65, ‘66, ‘67, ‘69, ‘71, ‘72, ‘73, ‘76, ‘77, ‘78, ‘79, ‘80, ‘82, ‘83, and ‘86, as well as the women’s titles in ‘80, ‘81, ‘82, and ‘83.

This old classic gym on the border of Delaware and Chester Counties, whether it stays standing or not, is part of the history. When it comes to the importance of Cope Hall, you didn’t need a scoreboard to know the score.