Pages
THE VOICE
May 6,1981
Athletics
(Continued From Page 7)
underlings, remain free to destroy
more lives.
Why so much sympathy for the
kids? Just this -- today’s collegiate
recruiting wars condition youngsters to
sell themselves to the highest bidders.
After being treated like pieces of beef
in a meat market, the kids are primed
for the gamblers.
Just for a second, put yourself in the
position of a ghetto youngster with
great basketball talent. Even before
you’re out of high school, you are
besieged by strangers inviting you to
visit campuses you might never have
heard of.
There are promises of money, cars,
women -- everything under the table,
of course -- if you agree to attend
Alcatraz A and M. You’re 18 years old
and already you’re a mercenary, hired
to play basketball, to keep the local
arena packed with fans.
Is it really such a big step from that
position to one in which you agree to
shave points? Remember you’re not
being asked to cause your team to lose,
just hold down the score.
Louisville Coach Denny Crum, who
played for John Wood at UCLA, un
derstands how young basketball
players are seduced by gamblers: “A
man gets inside a kid’s trust and that’s
all it takes. The temptation is there and
certainly the money is there.”
Crum knows where the fixers are
coming from, too. “A gambler is
looking for an edge,” said Crum. “If
he can control the game, he makes a
fortune-the Las Vegas casinos make
an awful lot of money with less of an
edge than a guy who fixes a basketball
- game.”
The dUemma Vs in finding a means to
prevent the fixers from succeeding.
Should schools counsel the kids about
the dangers of getting involved with
gamblers or should they keep the
youngsters in a cage of sorts, insulated
from the temptations?
“People don’t learn to deal with
crises situations if they have been
sheltered,” said Crum. “It’s like
telling a kid not to go out and play in
the street. You can keep him in the
house all the time and he won’t play in
the street, but he won’t know why he’s
not supposed to. Or, you can show him
why he shouldn’t play in the street, ex
plain to him the dangers and he will
then understand what the problem is.”
Another way would be for colleges
to recruit honestly instead of planting
the seed that cheating’s all right, as
long as you get away with it.—Campus
Digest News Service
DIANTHIA
MORRIS
BASKETBALL
(W)
TONEY
TERRY
GOLF
PEGGY
ORTON
LLEYBALL
STEVE
McFarland
TENNIS
ROY
SAPP
CROSS COUNTRY
W
%
/
ROBERT DANCY
TRACK
&
FIELD
CONGRATULATIONS
MVP’s
Awards were presented by
Dr. Richard A. Hogg,
Provost and VIce-Chancelior
for Academic Affairs.