Alcorn State University, its alumni publication and a key alumnus have won top honors at this year’s HBCU Awards.

The university won HBCU of the Year, the most contested overall honor, and Best Alumni Publication, for the spring 2011 issue of its Alcorn magazine during the awards program presented by The Center for HBCU Media Advocacy Inc. last week. ASU officials also accepted an award in the male alumnus of the year category.

“Alcorn appreciates the work and leadership of the Center for HBCU Media Advocacy,” ASU president M. Christopher Brown II said in Washington, D.C., during the second annual ceremony honoring the nation’s top historically black colleges and universities.

“This award would not be possible without the hard work and dedication to excellence of our faculty, students, alumni and staff,” Brown said. “We thank all of our friends and supporters of the nation’s oldest public historically black land-grant institution. We are Alcorn — always excellent without excuse.”

ASU competed for HBCU of the Year against Tuskegee University, Bennett College for Women, Florida A&M University and Southern University Law Center.

“Great things — outstanding research, high-quality teaching and public engagement — are happening at Alcorn State University and (Alcorn) is the nation’s first historically black land-grant institution, an elite institution, that embodies the spirit of the HBCU community,” said Jarrett L. Carter Sr., the center’s founder and executive director.

Cover photos on Alcorn winning edition featured the university’s 18 presidents since the school’s inception in 1871. Features inside included items about longtime baseball coach Willie McGowan and women’s basketball coach Shirley Gibbs Walker respective inductions into the SWAC Hall of Fame, a salute to civil rights activist and 1952 ASU grad Medgar Evers and news and views from students and faculty.

“We are really excited about it,” said Clara Ross Stamps, the publication’s editor and associate vice president for marketing, on both awards. “It’s a huge honor for our school.”

Marcus D. Ward, vice president for institutional affairs and interim executive director of the ASU Foundation, accepted the male alumnus award for Dr. Shelby Wilkes.

“Like so many distinguished Alcornites, Dr. Wilkes has served Alcorn well for many years,” Ward said. “He is an active member of the Alcorn State University Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors and is a great role model and mentor for our students. I am honored to accept this award on his behalf.”

ASU was nominated for nine awards overall. Other nominations included best research center, for its Center for Ecology and Natural Resources; best fine arts program; national alumni association of the year; female coach of the year, for women’s basketball coach Tonya Edwards; best HBCU choir; and male president/chancellor of the year.