Abraham Mitchell will pull his car into the restricted-access entrance today underneath Time Warner Cable Arena, where security will usher him to his own private dressing room.

This is where he will set up operations, where he'll change into and out of the dozens of wildly colorful tailored suits that will transform him from a mild-mannered Virginia resident into the CIAA tournament's most recognizable personality: the superfan Mr. CIAA.

Today, Mr. CIAA (say it "C-I-Double-A") has a corporate sponsor in Nationwide Insurance, which pays his travel expenses and gives him a stipend he can use to buy many of his suits. In addition to providing him with a dressing room and security, the CIAA puts Mitchell on the VIP list for all of its events.

Here's his schtick: Every year, he makes the five-hour drive from Suffolk, Va. - a city about 20 miles west of Norfolk - in a car adorned with a "MR CIAA" vanity plate and packed with more than two dozen suits. He's got one to match the colors of all 13 schools, from the maroon and steel of Virginia Union University to the gold and navy blue of Charlotte's Johnson C. Smith University; the rest are in random colors.

"I'm bringing 32 suits. ... I don't know what I may end up wearing," Mitchell says. "I hope it'll be cold so I can go into my furs. I didn't have to wear furs last year."

Beginning with today's matchups, he'll change four to six times per game through Saturday's finals. Every time he puts on a new suit and top hat, Mr. CIAA will strut around the arena toting an umbrella cane, pausing for photographs here or hugging children there.

"He's always fun to watch," says Charlotte Vibe founder Chris Jenkins, who has attended every CIAA tournament since it moved to Charlotte in 2006. "There's really a buzz as he gets near you and people are trying to take pictures of him."

Mitchell launched this tradition in the early 1970s when his nephew Peter was a basketball star at Norfolk State, which was then a member of the conference. At first, he just wore suits in that school's colors and was known as Mr. Norfolk State. But as soon as he started making the trip to the tournament, it evolved into a fun-loving fashion show.

(Having pleased crowds at tournaments in Greensboro; Hampton, Va.; Norfolk, Va.; Richmond, Va.; Winston-Salem and Raleigh, he has high praise for the current host city: "Charlotte is the best place I can remember going." His favorite spot for a postgame meal? Price's Chicken Coop on Camden Road in South End.)

Since he started the CIAA tradition, Mitchell has missed only one tournament, in the early '90s - although it's not because he didn't show up.

"I had a little confusion one time in Richmond. We (arrived at the game) and security said they had been told not to let me in," he recalls. "The commissioner thought I was taking too much attention from the games."

That ban, by the way, lasted only one year. "After that, it was a big uproar about that, and they were going to get rid of the commissioner."

In his everyday life, Mitchell is semi-retired, doing public relations for a funeral home. He won't give his age - "I keep it like my bank account ... personal!" - but he acknowledges that he may have to pass the Mr. CIAA torch along to someone else eventually.

"I told my nephew, 'Maybe somebody else needs to do this.' He said, 'No, as long as they want you to come and they give you a welcome mat, I think you should continue to go.' But ... I don't know how long it'll last," Mr. CIAA says, with a laugh, "before I get knocked off."