10 BLACK INK October 19, 1976
i
Howard U. soccer squad—
a proud, talented crew
g|r V.
staff ptioto by James Parktr
Howard dominates: while white students complain, seventh-ranked Bisons
methodically outmaneuver Carolina.
By LONZA HARDY
Sports Editor
An atmosphere of tension engulfed
Fetzer field. It was not just any soccer
game. It was not just UNO vs Howard. It
was Black vs white.
In the midst of this tension, and weary of
Carolina defeat, one white student com
plained, “I don’t think that’s right. I don’t
think it’s fair that Howard should be
recruiting from foreign countries any
more than other schools.”
That student had a good reason to be
fearful, for the Howard squad, minus it’s
six best players who were on probation due
to disciplinary problems, handily
demolished the UNC attack in a 2 to 0
winning effort. It employed rhythmic
movements of the head and feet that could
have won first prize on a Soul Train dance
contest.
Lincoln Phillips, the Bisons’ head coach,
who is from Nigeria, later commented,
“People keep hopping on me about local
players (all Howard’s squad are
foreigners except for one) but I have never
played against a team with a Black
American on it. the soccer game in this
country is geared for the affluent, the
whites, and the suburb dwellers. But what
about the Black kids in the city who don’t
ever get exposure?”
Phillips says the reason Howard
University started soccer in the U.S. was
to accommodate the foreigner because he
could not relate to basketball and football.
He contends the Howard team is helping
Black players in America.
“As a matter of fact one of our players is
James Sansom who is from Raleigh, and
he is the first brilliant Black soccer player
I’ve seen in my eight years in this coun
try,” Phillips said. “He earned a starting
position and it’s the first time in the history
of Howard that an American has ‘earned’
a position on our team.
Howard’s victorious journey in soccer
hasn’t been an all easy one even though in
the last six years, the team has won two
national championships and were runners-
up three times. The team and the coach
still are harrassed at many schools they
play.
“Some of the places we go people curse
at us and call us names,” Phillips said.
“Even the referees give us a hard time.”
The obvious reason for such hostility is
that Howard is the only Black university in
the nation with a soccer team. It created
soccer in the U.S. more than 100 years ago,
and the squad is coached by the only Black
man in American history who has ever
coached a professional soccer team.
Many whites feel the reason the Blacks
cheer for Howard is solely because it is a
Black school. But PhiUips wholeheartedly
rejects this idea. “Many of the people who
dieer for us don’t do so because we’re
Black or because they’re really hard-core
fans,” Phillips explained. “They just like
to go with a winner.”
Phil Ford: ‘IVs just my personality’
Off-court just a student,
‘like everyone else’
By SKIP FOREMAN
Assistant Sports Editor
After two years, one might think that all
they do is put a key in Phil Ford’s back and
say, “Here, Phil, shoot and dribble and
play good.” As of yet, no one’s found the
key—and they probably won’t. Simply put,
Ford is just as human as anyone else on
this campus.
Unusually enough, the guy that wears
no. 12 on the court is not the same one who
has to walk to class, or to the library, or
anywhere else. It is almost a Jekyll-Hyde
transition.
“Really, I’m not that outgoing a per
son,” Ford said. “If I wasn’t around a lot
of people, I probably wouldn’t get to know
that many anyway. It’s not that I don’t
want to. I enjoy talking to people more
than anything else. It’s just my per
sonality.”
His associations are primarily with the
people he will spend the most time with,
names like LaGarde, Davis, Kuester,
Smith, Eind the rest. Combine that with the
"very personal” interior of Granville
Towers, and a business major, and you
will have to crane your neck most time to
see Phil Ford, much less get him to speak.
Thus rises another issue from the rubble
of gossip. Now that an ACC title and
Olympic gold medal have come to the
Rocky Mount junior, there are those who
would wish to perceive him as being above
the rest of the crowd, especially \he Black
populace at UNC. How does he respond?
“That’s the kind of thing that is being
stereotyped. It doesn’t bother me because
I know how I really am. I can see how
some people would think that way because
during a game, I think that a person has to
believe in himself.
“If you looked at me on the court during
a game, you could say that I am a cocky
person. But off the -court -I- don’t think
that’s how a person should be. That’s not a
true athlete who believes he’s better than
anyone else.”
Ford says he considers himself a student
just like everyone else here. The exception
is that he doesn’t have to wait in line for
tickets as do the other 3,000-plus students.
“I have to go to school just like everyone
else.”
One more aspect of Ford’s life that has
become the business of the world is his
social life. He says the team is one big
family, and that there are no problems,
athletic or social. He credits part of his
own philosophy to what his high school
coach taught him.
“A teammate is a teammate no matter
what color he is. Those are the foundations
of a good athlete that I try to exemplify. I
think athletics apply to life anyway.
Everything is not going to be a bed of
roses, sometimes it’s going to be tough.”
As far as the female perspective goes,
Phil is apparently not any more different
than the mid-day girlwatcher on Greenlaw
wall. Needless to say, the dating issue has
been broached time and time again.
“I see a lot of different girls. I date a lot
of different girls. But then again, I don’t
have that much time. I think that it would
be hard for girls to understand that right
now I’m interested in sports.
“As far as girls are concerned, I don’t
care what color a girl is, if she’s very
pretty. I’ll go out with her.”
Maybe there are those who question a lot
of thiiigs about Phil Ford, with probable
cause. Then again, a lot of his own
philosophies are worthy of merit, whether
they were instilled by his high school
coach, or from head basketball coach
Dean Smith. For certain, he will settle any
issues about his basketball ability—and
maybe his life—out on the Carmichael
hardwood, -And whatever color they may
be, someone will be there to cheer.
/
Ford: “As far as girls are concerned, I don’t care what color a girl is—if she’s very
pretty, I’ll go out with her.”