Harold Swanagan: For the People Behind You

Harold Swanagan graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in sociology from Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters in May 2002 and received a master’s degree in education with an emphasis in educational leadership from Indiana University-South Bend in May 2009. Swanagan, a native of Owensboro, Kentucky, is four-year Monogram winner in men’s basketball and served as a tri-captain for the Irish during his senior season. Swanagan currently serves as Notre Dame’s Assistant Athletic Director for the GLD Center.

This installment of Signed, the Irish is part of a yearlong celebration in honor of Thompson’s legacy and the extraordinary contributions by our Black student-athletes.

“You gonna be there?”

“Yeah, I‘ll be there.”

Former assistant coach Fran McCaffery likes to remind me that just like that, with that one casual sentence, I’d committed to play basketball at Notre Dame.

That Kentucky kid had no clue what was in store for him at the University of Notre Dame.

As a kid, my mom decided to move me from Owensboro to Hopkinsville. One summer day, she dropped me at my grandmother’s house saying, “I’ll come back to get you at the end of the summer.”

She never came back.

My aunt adopted me and made sure I had the right work ethic in the classroom and the grades to play. My high school coach, Jeff Jackson, took me to school every day and taught me how to play.

With lots of college coaches coming to watch my teammates play, they made me look good. I was getting off the rim, getting down the floor, and got recruited by a lot of colleges.

My AAU teammate, David Graves, told me, “Notre Dame wants you. Make a trip.” And not one person in my family knew what college was. So I jumped on a plane by myself to meet a bunch of people by myself to evaluate the place I’d call home…by myself.

When I landed in South Bend, current Notre Dame assistant Antoni Wyche was my host. That weekend, the Black Alumni were hosting a reunion. It was incredible to see everyone on campus, Black programs, Black house parties. It was pretty dope.

Turns out, that same fall, the Black Alumni of Notre Dame established the Frazier Thompson Scholarship in honor of the late Frazier Thompson, the first Black student-athlete at the University.

When I got home, Graves called me back up: “Yo, what’d you think?”

I didn’t know what to make of it all. My only goal was graduating high school. 

“Forget about the basketball part,” he said, “but what ND can do for you as an individual afterward.”

And I thought about that. I decided I didn’t want my kids to grow up the way I did.

The first thing I learned about life at Notre Dame was that it was a grind and, when you get your opportunity, you get out there and work.

We had great seniors on the team that year — guys that are now family to me — Paul Rainey, Antoni Wyche, and Sky Owens.

On the football team, we had Autry Denson, Big Malcolm, Bryant Young (BY).

Marshaun West ran track, Mike Brown was the Leprechaun.

On the women’s squad, we had Julie Henderson and Niele Ivey. 

They all took us under their wing as young Black student-athletes on campus. And we created a family core here that was really good. 

It was like we knew there weren’t a lot of us, so you had a group where, if you saw each other, you could talk about stuff. Even though we wouldn’t hang out every day, you could go to those big brothers/ sisters and be like, “Yo, what’s this about?”

I can remember walking through the dining hall or playing Monopoly during finals week in LaFun and finding comfort in this mini community.

Through basketball, I learned accountability, doing things the right way. We were doing so much basketball-wise, having social time was almost nonexistent. 

My junior year, Mike Brey was hired as head coach and it was night and day. He knew I would show up and work — no maintenance required.

With more social time, I had a chance to become the resource that core group had been for me my freshman year. I became more relatable to the younger Black student-athletes and was able to point them in the right direction.

Chris Thomas, Jordan Cornette, Torrian Jones, and (now assistant coach) Ryan Humphrey — I was able to be a sounding board for them the way those older guys were for me.

As a Black student-athlete, you see other student-athletes around here, other student-athletes that look like you, but you never saw any administrators that look like you or any coaches that look like you.

Notre Dame has fallen short. We, across college sports, have fallen short. We’ve totally discounted and swept the importance of this to the side. I’m glad I’m in this position to help bring people in, to be able to build a culture, and to work in an office that stresses those things, those values.

Bernard Muir, Chris Reynolds, Frances Shavers, Jennifer Crittendon, Allen Greene, Nina King, Stan Wilcox — those were the few.

There’s still a need to increase the representation of people of color in athletics. It’s important to be able to see someone who looks like you, to see that there are other possibilities out there.

But when I had a chance to interact with them, to interact with the Kevin Whites and Boo Coorigans, you see they’re not just suits, they’re regular people.

That showed me that there’s a lane in athletics for normal dudes, for people that come to work and try to help out student-athletes in other ways, off the basketball court.

Kill it in your sport if you’re gonna kill it, but get a little bit of this education and let us help you grow as an individual. And that’s where I found my passion, helping show student-athletes that there are more opportunities and avenues than just playing sports.

I’ve been here since 2004 — almost 20 years — and you see a lot of student-athletes come and go. But when you see them come back with family members or kids or like girlfriends and they’re like “Swanny!” and they’re so hype to see you… that’s the most rewarding part.

Claire VeNard, the head of our GLD Center, and her husband, Dan — I remember them as kids and now you see them with their own kids and you’re like… that’s amazing. 

Niele being the head coach now when she used to be on the team. I’m like, “Dang, she was a helluva baller and now she’s coaching the squad!”

No matter what your journey is, follow that.

Don’t be deterred by what everyone else is doing around you — get to the point you have in sight.

At the end of the day, it’s your legacy. 

It’s your story. 

It’s all for the people behind you.