Three Catawba College graduates will receive 2020 Black Alumni Pioneer Awards at a ceremony on Nov. 7 during Homecoming Weekend. The award is given to alumni consider to be pioneers for fellow African Americans.
This year’s recipients are:
- The Rev. Larry S. Bullock, MPA/M.Div., Class of ’69
- Ike Hill, Class of ’70
- Dwight C. Durante, Class of ’74
The three made history at Catawba as they integrated the college’s student body. Durante and Bullock were the first black basketball players at Catawba during the 1965-66 season. Bullock, the first black graduate of Catawba, served in the Illinois House of Representatives for eight years. Hill, a football standout who played for four NFL teams, came to Catawba in 1965 and was the first black football player. Durante played for the Harlem Globetrotters.
The awards will be presented in a ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. on Zoom and Facebook Live. The award recognizes black alumni who pave the way for African American students, in that they have distinguished themselves in a profession and/or local community and conveyed integrity to Catawba through their decency and bravery. Award winners are recognized for bringing honor to the Catawba community as a whole and to the Catawba Black Alumni Network (CBAN)through their support of CBAN events and initiatives.
Bullock graduated from Catawba with a Bachelor of Science Degree ( Pre-Law). His athletic and academic accomplishments led him to Chicago where he earned a Master of Public Administration Degree from Roosevelt University and a Master of Divinity Degree from McCormick Theological Seminary on the campus of the University of Chicago.
In 1978, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives and served for eight years. He served on the Appropriations, Banking, Revenue and Labor committees. He sponsored and enacted legislation for the expansion of McCormick Place, board membership for CHA Tenants, removal of sales tax on food and medicine, and the addition of branch banking in Illinois. He chaired the House Governmental Operations Committee and also organized and served as Chairman of the First Black Illinois Domestic Summit Conference. He has been inducted into The Black History Makers: Political Makers, the nation’s largest African American Video Oral History Collection, now housed in the U S Library of Congress.
Successful in the corporate business world, he was previously National Manager-Strategic Market Relationships for Stewart Title Guaranty Co. (Multicultural Markets Development, Stewart Title Guaranty Corporation). He was responsible for multicultural market development and development of strategic relationships with Banking, Investment and Commercial entities within the real estate settlement services industry -MCM niches nationwide. He served on the SISCO National Multicultural Market Advisory Board that consists of 12 members from across the nation. Stewart Title Guaranty (SISCO) is the third largest real settlement services-technology corporation in America (Houston, TX).
He is recipient of the Presidential Award from the National Association of Real Estates Brokers (NAREB), designated as the “Democracy in Housing Award” for outstanding and exemplary contribution to the nationwide homeownership campaign in the African American/multicultural market communities. He served on the NARED, PAC Committee as a national legislative policy advisor to the Cultural Market Advisory Board. He also received the 2006-2007 Success Guide Worldwide Magazine “Top Achievers” Award as a global leader in business networking.
He is a former President of Roosevelt University Alumni Association (RUAA) and a former member of the Roosevelt University Board of Trustees, having retired more than five years ago. He is the founder, senior pastor/teacher of Living Faith CWC Church in Palatine, IL, holding those positions since Oct. 8, 2000.
He is the Owner/President of April Cobra Enterprises, Inc., and former Chairman of Heartland Energy Technology (H.E.A.T., LLC) that specializes in Construction Management, Environmental Engineering, General Contracting, Real Estate Development, and Global Venture consulting in Barrington, IL. In addition, he is the Founder and current President of the U.S. Minority Contractors Association (USMCA), a non-profit professional trade association of minority owned and operated businesses (MBE/WBE) located in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, and soon in the Raleigh-Durham Metro area of North Carolina. He is the recipient of scores of national and state awards for outstanding accomplishments and achievements in the public policy, business innovations and in the economic and community development industries, including the African American Tribune Newspaper citation for the Keeper of the Dream Award-2015.
Married to Dr. Gloria Estell Bullock, he is the father of two children and six grandsons. He cites his family as his proudest achievement.
Hill, of Oak Park, IL, played five seasons in the National Football League for the Buffalo Bills, the Chicago Bears, the New Orleans Saints, and the Miami Dolphins from1970 to 1976. At Catawba, he earned Most Valuable Player honors in 1968 and 1970. He made the All-Carolinas Conference Team for two years. He remains Catawba’s all-time leader in all-purpose yards and punt returns and is second in kickoff return yardage. In high school, he played three sports for Atkins High School in Winston-Salem and was All City and All State in 1964 and 1965. In 2010, he was inducted into the Atkins High School Sports Hall of Fame. After his sports career, he spent more than three decades employed by an Illinois lumber company.
Durante, a Fayetteville educator, played most of his professional sports career with the Harlem Globetrotters and Harlem Magicians.
He still holds Catawba records for career scoring average (29.4 points per game), season scoring average (32.1), and points in a game (58). He is Catawba’s leading scorer with 2,913 points in 99 games, without the benefit of the 3-point shot. Durante holds seven of the top nine scoring games in Catawba history and is the only player to score 50 points in game which he did four times. In addition to his record game of 58 points, Durante scored 53 points against Atlantic Christian (now Barton), 52 against Elon and 50 versus Newberry. His top three scoring seasons of 878, 804 and 753 points still stand as the top three in school history.
He was Catawba’s first ever, first-team NAIA All-American. He was drafted by the New York Knicks in the sixth round of the NBA draft in 1969. He left the NBA, after the 1968 Olympic Trials, where he led the NAIA All-Stars and outplayed All-Americans from the NCAA schools buy was left off the roster for the Olympic Games in Mexico City. Convinced that a 5-8 player couldn’t make it in the NBA, he joined the Harlem Globetrotters. He was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
