Monday, August 23, 1982The Daily Tar Heel5C
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Crisis in' college.. sports
Mniiimi at tHeir worst
By LINDA ROBERTSON
Somewhere along the road, perspective was lost.
In the myth that is college sports, the hoopla and
heroism hid the hypocrisy until things got of con?
trol. Now the cyclical crisis arises again: can the true
spirit of intercollegiate athletics be revived?
The facade of amateurism has come tumbling
down once more amid controversial allegations and
revelations at schools across the country. The most
dramatic action was taken by President Father John
Lo Schiavo, who threw up his hands in frustration
and abolished the University of San Francisco's
basketball program.
The current state of alarm has plenty of pred
ecessors. Calls for reform roll in as regularly as the
tides. This time, however, a sense of urgency per- v
vades college sports. Coaches, athletes, ad-
ministrators, alumni and fans have been slowly,
blindly nudging each other across the plank. The
next step could force the concept of fair competition
they have mutilated beyond recognition over the
edge. -
Deja vu.
September, 1978: Montana State arranged for
freshman basketball player Bernard Madison to
take Basketball Fundamentals and Techniques,
Basketball Philosophy, Physical Conditioning,
Wrestling Theory, General Biology and Safety With
Hand Power Tools. Gairning the school "destroyed
my motivation,", he left later that year to enroll at
Chicago State University.
November, 1979: They called it Lobogate
University of New Mexico basketball coach Norm
Ellenberger and assistant Manny Goldstein were"
suspended after it was revealed guard Craig Gilbert,
a junior college transfer, received phony credits
through Oxnard (Calif.) College. Later, Ellenberger
was convicted on 21 counts related to transcript
justification and UNM was put on probation for
three years.
December, 1979: At the University of Southern
California, it was discovered that 28 football players
were enrolled in a Speech Communications class
they " never attended. When the players'' work in a
subsequent "crash course" was evaluated, The Dai
ly Trojan printed part of a composition written by
an athlete supposedly impressed by the debating
skill of a student named John: "I when went John
because He had a point on girl that I couldn't not
again, so that made me think girl dont have body
for lady unless they wont that why I went with
John."
February, 1980: At the University of Oregon, the
president announced seven athletes received credit
for courses they didn't attend; one of them,
linebacker Derrick Dale, got credit by taking an in
dependent study jogging course at a nearby com
' munity college. Dale was credited for the running he
did during football practice. Later, he quit school
under pressure from teammates after implicating
coach Rich Brooks in a transcript scandal."'-
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February, 1981 : The Kansas City Times reported
that a Wichita State coed said basketball coach
Gene Smithson arranged and paid for an abortion
after she became pregnant by a player. Former
players said they received more than $4500 in
gratuities from coaches and boosters. It was also re
ported that Jo Ann Carr, mother of star Antoine
Carr, moved her family into a $62,500 house and
bought two cars after her son joined the team in
1979
December, 1981: Texas A&M beat Oklahoma in
the Independence Bowl Dec. 12. Wisconsin played
in the Garden State Bowl on Dec. 13. Final exams -started
at Wisconsin on Dec. 13 and on Dec. 14 at
the other two schools.
February, 1982: U.S. District Court Judge Henry
Bramweil sentenced former Boston College basket
ball player Rick Kuhn to ten years in prison for his
( participation in the 1978-79 season point-shaving ;
scandal. v .
v ' . March, 1982: Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps
unloads the news that huge recruiting inducements
are rampant in college basketball and said that
$10,000 payments are not uncommon.
June, 1982: The Raleigh Times conducted a
survey and found that only 25 percent of the foot
ball and basketball players attending Duke, N.C.
State and UNC received their diplomas on time.
The list is endless. The ideals of education are
sacrificed for success on the playing field. Nielson
point averages become more important than grade
point averages. And in almost every case, the athlete
is exploited. He leaves the insulated life at school
: with few options. Nobody ever tells the recruit,
when handing him keys to a new car, that only 2
percent of all college players make it to the NFL or
NBA. The average career in those pro sports lasts
less than four years.
"Things have become so professionalized in col
lege athletics that the notion of the student-athlete is
rather ridiculous," said Robert Atwell, vice presi-
dent of the American Council on Education. "Win
ning teams bring money and publicity to the institu
tion. That means there's a great deal of pressure to
somehow acquire good athletes and somehow keep
them eligible."
The ACE, along with other academic organiza
tions, takes the position that there is still hope for
college sports despite the present chaotic situation.
The ACE has formed a committee of 25 university
presidents to examine the problems that threaten to
make a farce of the entire educational system.
Twelve of those presidents, including UNC's
William C. Friday, met Aug. 7-8 to discuss
recruiting, eligibility requirements, standards for
progress toward degrees and NCAA enforcement.
That group will meet with 13 other presidents before
suggesting policy changes at the NCAA's conven
tion in January.
Intercollegiate athletics can make a positive con
tribution rather than permanently scarring an in
stitution's credibility. .
"This unique adjunct of the educational
-endeavor-; has -provided a -high degree of public
By S.L. PRICE
visibility for its host, a strong sense of identity for its
students, faculty and alumni, and a bridge between
academe and the public at large, whose support has
been so important to the -academic enterprise,"
wrote Charles E. Young, UCLA's chancellor, in a
report he presented to the ACE and the Association
of American Universities. "However, that positive
relationship can become greatly destructive if the
all-too-prevalent 'excesses and improprieties within
athletic programs are not quickly curbed."
It is impossible to raise a student's potential by
lowering standards, and the thrust of the reforms
suggested by Young and others involves toughening
up admissions and eligibility requirements. Such ac
tions would help eliminate the problem of bogus
credit from mail-order courses and fly-by-night
junior colleges.
Many are calling for the abolishment of freshman
eligibility again, to smooth out the transition from
high "school to college. Limiting campus visits would
reduce the demeaning intensity of the recruiting of
blue-chip athletes.
"I think we should impose tremendous penalties
on the institutions and coaches who violate the
rules," Atwell said. "At the present time the athlete
suffers a great deal because loss of eligibility is akin
to capital punishment."
The NCAA could also take steps to restrict
scholarships and recruiting privileges when a school
has a low graduation rate among its athletes.
Other proposals range from granting tenure to.
coaches in order to ease the temptation to cheat, to
total abandonment of amateurism in favor of
salaried, full-time athletes.
One thing is clear. Intercollegiate sports has
stumbled to another crossroads with one route
leading directly to a dead end. College athletic pro
grams can be more than just a farm system for the
pros. Sports are supposed to build character, not
destroy it. '
Linda Robertson, a senior English and journalism
major from Miami, Ha., is sports editor of The
Daily Tar Heel. '
Contrary to what the owners of the Shrunken
Head Boutique would have everyone believe, it has
not been a good year for college basketball. .
Sure, national attendance for the year broke all
previous records and over 60,000 faithful stormed
into the Superdome in New Orleans to see one of
the most exciting NCAA finals ever. The Big East
conference came into prominence, with three
schools, Villanova, Boston College, and
Georgetown, representing the conference in the
final eight. Parity is now the byword when discuss
ing the national basketball scene, which means that
the huge sums being paid to televise and stage col
lege basketball will be spread all over the country.
Witness the bidding war finally won by Ted
Turner's cable network for the rights to televise this
year's Georgetown-VirgimaEwmg-Sampson con
frontation. Pretty profitable.
But revelations by All-American Quintin Dailey,
which implicate an alumnus in paying Dailey some
under-the-table cash, proved so damaging that the
University of San Francisco was forced to abandon
its traditionally powerful basketball ; program.
Dailey, a first-round draft choice of the Chicago
.Bulls, was throughout the summer the center of a
, storm of legal and popular hassles stemming from
his conviction for assault of a female student.
Dailey mentioned in a probation officer's report
that he was given about $1000 a month last summer
f or a non-existent job and he later stated that he had
received $5000 more in a one-year period. The man
dealing out the cash? The former president of a
USF basketball booster organization, ' J. Luis
Zabala.
During the press conference in which he an
nounced the end of USF basketball,' President
Father John Lo Schiavo stated that "an alumnus,
for whose actions the NCAA holds the university
responsible, has paid money. . . to an enrolled stu
dent athlete who did not work for it." Lo Schiavo
was also quoted in last week's Sports Illustrated:
"I'm convinced that Mr. Zabala is only one of a lot
of people out there who simply believe that you
can't compete effectively without cheating. So they
look at a University that wants to abide by the rules
as naive, and they just want to go on jloing what
they want to do." L
If this had been the first time Sari Francisco had
been caught cheating, Lo Schiavo would have been
content with the NCAA probation and a cleaned-up
program. But along with its enviable history of two
consecutive NCAA championships, 15 West Coast
Athletic Conference championships iand such
players as Bill Cartwright, K.C. Jones, and Bill
Russell, the University has carried on its back a nag
ging monkey of continual investigation and
shameful findings. Twice during Lo Schiavo's term
as president USF has been put on NCAA proba
the first inquiry, and in 1980 coach Dan BeUuomini
was fired as the result of an internal investigation.
And now, along with the Dailey charges, Lo
Schiavo also revealed that: "Arrangements were
made for another alumnus to pay high school tui
tion for a high school student being recruited." The
alumnus was a USF booster.
Lo Schiavo is the first university administrator
ever to abolish a major sport because of NCAA
violations, and praise for his courageous action
came from such coaches as Perm State football
coach Joe Paterao and Indiana's Bobby Knight.
UNC coach Dean Smith was quoted by SI as saying,
"He was right. The integrity of the university is far
more important."
This may be the Golden
Age of UNC athletics, but
it is also a prime time for
some alumnus to try and
keep it that way, illegally.
Obviously, the University of San Francisco, as
well as its fans and players, is paying the ultimate
price for unscrupulous alumni. Lo Schiavo's deci
sion points up the fact that major sports universities
must keep a tighter grip upon alumni involvement
or suffer for any laxity with the loss of reputation
and integrity.
With ten teams finishing in the top ten nationally,
North Carolina can easily take its place as the new
power in college sports. Inside Sports said as much
in an early summer issue, as it knocked UCLA off
its pedestal of perennial domination. UCLA did not
participate in the NCAA tournament this year be
cause of punitive action taken by the NCAA for a
host of violations. If, as Dean Smith said, "The in
tegrity of the university is far more important," the
University of North Carolina should make a close
examination of alumni involvement in UNC athle
tics. The new Student Activities Center on South
Campus, which is funded entirely by alumni contri
butions, smacks of the same overzealous mind-set
that sent the USF basketball program crashing
down. This may be the Golden Age of UNC ath
letics, but it is also a prime time for some alumnus
to try and keep it that way, illegally. It may already
be happening now.
Lo Schiavo said at the plug-pulling press con
ference that "all the legitimate purposes of an
athletic program in an educational institution are
being distorted by the basketball program as it has
developed."
Go, team, go.
S.L. Price, a senior English major from Stamford,
Cnnn.: iv assistant sDorts editor of The Daily Tar
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