People in my state, North Carolina, read daily about the “UNC ATHLETIC SCANDAL”. lots of opinions and pretty heated topic because of the importance of sports in our area. Particularly college Men’s Basketball. What to do about this conundrum? Pretty tough issues involved. “…once the *X##@ is out of the bull!”–Willie Nelson.
There are a lot of similarities between this an the immigration issue in America. Like kudzu, the problems are everywhere and growing. Not to minimize the Chapel Hill problems, but this not theirs alone: “I’m just the leper with the most fingers left.” Lots of staff meetings in college and universities (Athletic Directors, Academic Advisors, Coaches, etc.). NOTE: CEO AND TRUSTEES TOO!

Is it time for some straight talk. Stout action. What is this really about? Sports? Money? Ego? Education? RACE? All of the above and maybe more, much more? Remember all the people who have gotten in trouble talking about race in America (Jimmy “the Greek” for example?) Yet how do we deal with the “…elephant in the room”? In 2007 I wrote PLAY IS WHERE LIFE IS. I braved the following comment that may have been prescient:

“Much has been written about the “Black Athlete”. There is no question in my mind about the talent level of these athletes. Coming from the the South and being a minister’s son there was little question, early on about God. Certainly, in my mind he was male, white and looked a whole lot like Santa Claus. Surely too, he was lovable, kind, and simply a good “supreme being”. After watching sports in America the last forty years my guess about God’s nature is more Machiavellian. After watching America make a religion out of sports, while at the same time mistreating the black population so badly, I picture God’s role differently. My guess is we’ve put so much emphasis on sport He’s peeved. Think not? Watch where parents are at 11:00 am on Sundays if their child is in a soccer match. Hmm? Did God say “I’ll give these fanatics a dilemma!” He then put this glorious athletic talent in many of the Black population, and now He’s “up there” giggling at what America is doing with sports. Please don’t get me wrong. The Black athletes have paid their dues in practice, injury, and sweat just like anyone. Probably more so. Integration caused a lot of headaches in the alignment of conferences, etc. Who plays and who you play, is important, and alignment turned things upside down.

I do believe Proposition 48 (the academic guidelines for collegiate eligibility) yielded a lot of good. I wonder about the S.A.T and fairness, but it is a “hard” number. My guess is the best barometer for academic success is the athlete’s class rank. With exceptions, most of those who could achieve class rank had enough ability to succeed. Some can’t spell S.A.T. Some people are aberrant bastards who have no business in higher education. It always irked me to know that he beauty,education, and joy of collegiate sports was often wasted on an “athlete” who had no intention of benefiting from the true value of Sports in Education.”

David Epstein’s book, THE SPORT GENE, is truly informative. True research on nature vs. nurture in the development of elite athletes. I recommend it to anyone interested in sports and related research. Just very limited few comments from THE SPORT GENE:

“The broad truth is that nature and nurture are so interlaced in any realm of athletic performance that the answer is always: it’s both”.

“No one can argue that there was selection of the fittest slave.” (Yannis Pitsiladis)

“I believe there is a superior athletic gene in us.” (Michael Johnson, sprinter)

“Here’s the conclusion of Peter Matthews, the track-and-field statistician who compiled those numbers:”In these days of computer games, sedentary pursuits, and driving our children to school—It is the ‘hungry’ fighter or the poor peasant who has the endurance background, and the incentive to work on it, who makes the top distance runner.”

The News and Observer has jumped all over the “Carolina Scandal”. Who knows what will come down as truth. One obvious fact is race as an issue is in bold print.
Comments from the public on an N & O article entitled UNC SCANDAL, with literacy advocate, Mary Carey, posing the blunt question “…why do we fail to teach so many black males how to read?” (Nov.10, 2014).

Samples of public comments:
…”why couldn’t these athletes maintain eligibility through standard classes?” The answer; because we as a state and as a nation don’t teach young black males how to read.”

“I can tell you first hand that the reasons many of them are struggling readers are very complex. Many of them come from families of very weak readers who don’t have the time, energy or resources to reinforce the first thing that is happening at school. …This is a cultural problem as much as it is an educational problem. “It is complicated and hard to watch and as most kids move on and those who have never valued reading lag and then get stuck behind it is heart breaking.”

“I taught MY children how to read. My children taught THEIR children how to read. It takes parents to learn to read—parents who read to their children. Kindergarten is almost too late, if the home is not a center of learning.”

“Their communities are failing them for telling them that getting an education is pointless.”

“Give the parents a livable wage so they won’t have to work two or three full time jobs, and they might be able to devote some time to their kids education. And stronger families overall, including present fathers, are also critical.”

If we really want solve or better the issue, then “…let us not talk falsely, the hour is getting late.” The fact that nature and nurture, right or wrong or a combination of both, have produced some truly marvelous black American athletes is obvious and a truth. By the same token it is immoral not to recognize and take significant responsibility for the same kind of results the sins of slavery have yielded.
Solution? No easy answers here. I once had to dig up a septic tank with a shovel. My “supervisor” said “…just keep pecking away at it.”
Another observation came from coaching tennis. Tons of internationals. Doesn’t take long to realize there are good and bad of all denominations. Swedes,Dutch,American, black,white, men, women, gay or straight, young or old. People should be judged on their individual merit.
M.L. Carr of Boston Celtics fame, was recently inducted into the NORTH CAROLINA SPORTS HALL OF FAME. Inductees and their spouses opened ceremonies with an entering parade. Some were shocked to see M.L. being accompanied by a male? His acceptance explained that the man with him, a white man, had taken taken a young black Wallace N.C. youngster with no ties, and mentored him all the way to hall of fame status. Carr added information about his current efforts his foundation offers to at risk kids. Maybe one at a time is one way.
I buy any copy of DAYS OF GRACE by Arthur Ashe I can find. Eventually I find a young African American to give it to. Bill Cosby is another leader. listen to leaders. Bob Dylan looking back,”…I would be kinder.” Simple. I found local examples. Leo Barker coached with us briefly at ELON. Coach Barker was an all pro linebacker with the super bowl Cincinnati Bengals. A black Panamanian and one of 16 siblings he was impressive any number of ways. Not long after his first practice I overheard one of our black standouts comment, “…Coach Leo, he doesn’t go for that victimology crap.
My friend and great coach Henry Trevathan speaks truth. He made have issued our fundamental challenge recently in a private conversation: “Tom,it is useless to try anything until families start to function again.”
Malcom Gladwell says reading lovingly to every child is indispensable. Without this parental effort failure is imminent.
Parenting.
My golfing buddy, Jimmy Smith, is one of eleven. What would your Dad do if you or your siblings were accused of wrong doing? I asked. “We had to tell him the whole truth and pledge not to do it again. Still had to take his punishment, but truth yielded some lesser sentence. Lying was hell to pay.”
How about Amnesty for College Athletics. The deafening silence out there now surrounds the arena. Nobody telling Daddy the truth? Hoping he doesn’t find out about me?
How about we all fess up, take the medicine and start clean. Put admissions back in charge of admission. No ticky,no laundry! Best first move? Stop admitting the thugs of any kind, no matter how good they are. They take up valuable slots that good kids will fill. Most all who replace the thugs will be black. The smart ones are good too!
Maybe college sports programs are not alone. Some others may need a cleansing moment. The business world, the catholic church, religion, politics….AMNESTY FOR AMERICA.

A fellow coach once suggested, “…the NCAA should be limited to 10 rules, and if they add one they have to eliminate one.”  In fact there is nothing simple about the rules, nor their enforcement.   Each year there are numerous attempts at control.  Some are major { like Title nine-equality for women, or Proposition 42-academic minimums, etc.).  None today rivals the $2000 “stipend” proposal that is currently pending.

James Michener observed that “America is the only country in the world that charges higher education with entertaining the public.”  The conflicts between money and idealism in education create a conundrum.   History tells us football and men’s basketball make the money.   The others want to play too.  Now what?

Only the big five conferences get tne NCAA stipend greenlight.  What happens to the borderline big timers not in those conferences?  How about the “mid majors” and small Division One schools?  NCAA D11?  JUCOS?  NAIA?

Each school will have some big decisions.  Nobody  seems to have any clear vision.  Is the paste out of the tube?  Is this a moment of opportunity, one that gives pause to higher education as a chance for reason?

My hope is that a code similar to the Doctor’s Hippocratic Oath ( “First, do no harm”) is at the top of the list.  Public school law says the teacher (coach) acts as the child’s parent (in loco parentis). 

Here are a few common sense suggestions if indeed reform is imminent:

1.  I  had 3 close friends who had big league potential as baseball pitchers.  All injured their arms due to overuse.  A coach should not ask a youngster to over pitch.   Pitch counts are a  rule that have saved some arms.

2.  College baseball plays too many games.  56 that balloons into 70.  Stop it.

3. Before football facemasks were required, 1 player is 3 suffered a dental injury.  After facemasks rule? 1 in 3800.  Good rule for eaters.

4.  Football has got to change the frequency of concussions.  Or lawyers will break anyone who charges to see the game.

5.  Women’s and girl’s soccer must create rules and training  that drastically reduce anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injuries.

There needs to be a lot of review.  Sports in America are way too important to be prostituted.  There are serious flaws, but the good vastly outweighs the bad.  Arthur Ashe stood firmly for equal academic standards for collegiate athletic eligibility.  He contended the capable will “…rise to the standard required.”  There is so much education in the proper use of sports, but if we give to the “thugs”, they eliminate the capable kids who can improve themselves, their families, and our country.   It is not racial.  Bad blacks eliminate good blacks.  Keep the right youngsters in our uniforms.

While we live in eastern North Carolina (the Atlantic Ocean is several hundred yards South of us) the coast of our state has an eclectic citizenry.   Lots of retirees, northern brothers,  and an influx of in-state folks.  Lots of folks moving our way.   The oldest and most unique locals are the “hoi toiders” ( or high tiders ).   These “down easterners”  refer to Kinston, N.C.  as the west.    They have their own dialect and vocabulary. “Dit-dotters” are tourists who come and go back.  “Ding-batters” come and, alas, stay.   Local lingo contends ‘…my lord, honey, they must leave their brains on the other ” soide ” ( side ) of the bridges”

We are also near Camp Lejeune or the Marine Base.   Having worked in two colleges my  entire 40 work years, some of my friends call me “Coach”, or sometimes “Professor”.  I  once asked a friend who had moved to Chapel Hill,  N.C.  how they liked it?   He replied “…not much—if you don’t have a PH.D.  or have a dozen books published,  most of them won’t have anything to do with you.   Some have contended the worst thing about being rich was you had to deal with other rich people.   My coaching colleagues put too much value on winning, perhaps.  Down here status often depends on military rank, noted careers.   I guess on Wall Street and in a lot  America,  it’s is money that does the talking.

While a bumper sticker in the piedmont might read ” MY CHILD IS  AN HONOR STUDENT”,  down here you could just as well see “MY BOY CAN WHIP THE CRAP OUT OF YOU HONOR STUDENT”.

I am not inclined to deny or resent “Coach”,  or having taught for a long time.  Nor do I get out of sorts at “here comes the (“liberal”, or “Obama”, or “the college man”, etc.).   I try not to respond , much as my oldest Son advised.   Last week a quote got my attention:   “The worst argument against Democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter”  (Churchill?).   And  “…if you think education is expensive,  try ignorance.” If one thinks “liberal”  (freedom) is a bad word,  and the misspent  and mismanaged money on war in this decade has been “conservative” —why argue?

So—when one got over the line recently (” Coach, you have spent too much time around colleges”)  it just blurted out of me.   I asked him if he had any any grandchildren?  OH YES.  Tell me about them, I continued.  I got the usual “my goose is a swan” answers one gets from any grandparent .  Goes  somewhat like these cliches:  ” He reads two grade levels above his class. ” Or, ” She makes all A’s! “.   “I don’t know where he gets it—must be his Mother. ”  And others we all know, if we ask any grandparent.   Then he took a breath.

Quickly  I pointed out that I had never heard any of  THESE comments from a parent or grandparent:   “You know he is the dumbest little son of a gun in his class!”   or, “She certainly never made an A!” or, “…if he flunks the eight grade one more time he’ll be 16, and I think I HAVE GOT HIM TALKED INTO QUITTING FOR GOOD!’ or, ” maybe the 4th grade will be shoe-tying and potty-trained year.

He looked at me funny but  didn’t say anything.  I  don’t know whether he got it or not.

“Call your next case”.   Chub Seawell,  Carthage, N.C. —1955

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In the early part of the last century the North Carolina legislature passed a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the public schools. Asked about this action a young Sam Erwin concluded that the one good thing about this action is that it “…absolves the monkeys of the jungle of any responsibility for the behavior of the human race in general, and the North Carolina Legislature in particular.”   If the Republicans get by with their intentions in Raleigh, it won’t be the News and Observers fault ( “…lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff too. Don’t get up gentlemen, I’m only passing through” ( THINGS HAVE CHANGED–BOB DYLAN).   Lots of issues.   I recently expressed my concerns about education and what’s going on with teachers.   A retired highway patrolman said he had carried a gun his whole career, and his profession had often been neglected compared to N.C.teachers.    I don’t question that profession and all they do and risk. Firemen, Policemen, and the Military.   I did note later that he had retired at age 52   And that perhaps soon, wise teachers may want to carry a weapon also.   School teachers have long been underpaid.   Add integration and discipline problems and many good teachers, coaches, and administrators have abandoned education.   If we continue to whittle away at this rate (abandoning tenure, cutting out aides, larger class sizes, no reward for increased education, no scholarships for talented future in-state teachers, larger classroom sizes, undermining the values of public schools and funding for them, etc.), who will fill the slots? Think for a minute. Fire Donald and hire Daffy? Who do you hire, Mr. Superintendent, or N.C.legislator, when no competent people will take the jobs?   Haven’t we seen too many sorry people who gravitate to youngsters, if allowed.   Who takes a job no one else will have?   Aren’t some of the problems we have with tenure because we had to hire improperly vetted dregs.   How can the proposed changes not make things horribly worse!
The old school tennis coaches will remember when we had to referee our own matches.   Talk about a mess.    Finally they funded one official.   Often these people were retirees:   Nice people who were underpaid but wanted to help.   Pretty soon some of the young coaches who hadn’t witnessed matches minus a referee, took this as an opportunity to argue with these sometimes volunteers, or underpaid godsends    It wasn’t long before you couldn’t find an official.   And those you got didn’t know an “unforced error” from most first marriages.   It is time, North Carolina, to get up on your hind legs and stop this ruinous, dangerous bunch.   PS.   Two contemporary authors of note made comments that are related: 1. Pat Conroy from MY READING LIFE: “…if anyone knows a more important profession than teaching i wish they would let me know what it is before I die.”   And 2. From Malcolm Gladwell’s OUTLIERS: Paraphrasing Mr. Gladwell’s “outlier” concerning education, he contends that the most important factor in education is that each individual child must have at an early age (pre-kindergarten) a loving person who reads to the child and conveys the importance of reading to that child.

James Michener wrote Sports in America in 1976.   He observed, then, that the United States is the only country that charges higher education with entertaining the public (via athletic programs).   Surely education versus capitalism (or “the market”) presents a paradox for colleges and universities.   This conundrum has existed for more than a century and still we struggle with how to make it work reasonably.

Our local 2013 example of these problems was the highly publicized UNC-Chapel Hill bogus courses, used primarily for athletic eligibility.   Oddly, one of our national leaders for reform in athletics was UNC-CH former chancellor Dr. Bill Friday.  Dr. Friday, and the Knight Commission together had forewarned of the dangers of uncontrolled athletic programs.

What seems paradoxical, and sad, is that while we speak passionately of reform, we continue to yield to the dollar.

The freedom of the market seems very American.   I don’t doubt that Coach K is worth 9.7 million dollars annually for Duke University.   Quickly the Duke people would contest, “the university itself benefits by more than this amount plus the salary comes, in large portion, from outside the university coffers”.   While in this instance, that may be true, are others not forced the ante-up in a nuclear arms race-like spending war?   Associate head football coaches making 2 million?

Want to know where the less fortunate schools find such monies?   From the student body!   Are we not reaching a point of diminishing returns when college debt exceeds all national credit card debt?   When annual college/university costs exceed $70,000 per year, what sense does a “liberal arts” degree make?   Especially for those who have the current economic situation to guide their decisions.   There is a huge portion of the student body saying “Hey, I’m not interested in paying for athletic excess.   Community college a  more reasonable option? No sense in a liberal arts degree?   Forget unreasonable athletic schools, I need a job!”   Is uncontrolled athletic expense going to cost us liberal arts education and/or the valuable lessons of reasonable collegiate programs.

There are lots of ideas floating around:  Stipends for athletics?  AAU basketball influences?   High school “recruiting” that often eliminates any chance of good neighborhood teams winning…or even trying.

Ask any old-timer about stipends for athletics.   They’ll say, “No, they are getting a scholarship.” But how much is Johnny Football worth to Texas A&M?   How about Cam Newton and Auburn.   The stipend ($2000) was voted in by the NCAA.   Then voted out.   Would it not escalate to $20,000 soon and thus be affordable to the much discussed “Super 60” only?

One local decision scares me too: UNC-Wilmington just dropped 5 athletic programs.   They seemed to be 5 of their most successful programs, albeit “non-revenue” sports.   Often I am asked by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) to write support letters to schools who are dropping collegiate tennis programs, or are about to.

What about proximity in college athletics?   Syracuse in the Atlantic Coast Conference?   Pittsburgh?   What happens to the “Big 4” rivalries?   Elon, my former employer, has opted for the Colonial Conference over the Southern Conference. Travel looks to me to be much more.   Who suffers from distance?   Those who can’t afford to fly, ie: the women and the “non-revenue” programs.   What happens to study time, eaten up by travel time?   Ask Campbell University’s  coaches, who just “came in from the cold!”   They were in a league with teams in 11 different states!   How is that a reasonable conference?   Maybe it’s just me, but I loved the “southerness” of the Southern Conference.   No need to fly anywhere. Believe me, with no TV revenue, and travel out the wazoo, these programs and people take big blows.

Higher education in the future needs some stout leaders.   Bob Dylan says, “Money doesn’t talk. It swears.”   Presidents and Chancellors and Athletic Directors can’t say “We didn’t know”,  anymore.   If they don’t know they are just as culpable.   It’s that big, and threatens the whole ball of wax.  There is a lot of fat in higher education.   From athletics, to faculty job loads, to sabbaticals, to minimal output by tenured  faculty, to excessive administrative  positions,  to phony academic courses and grades..

P.S.     On weather!    I am old enough to remember when college spring schedules ended at the end of May.    Now many schools end in mid April with conference playoffs coming  as early as the first or second weekend of the month.  Play was in April  and May with practice starting in March.   Now play is often in February and March, with practice in January.   March 1 now is about midseason.   This  spring in  North  Carolina there were very few contests played in warm, spring weather.

I coached 40 years in four different conferences:  Carolinas Conference, South Atlantic Conference,  Big South Conference, and  the Southern Conference.   Rarely did any of these coaches go north to schedule.   Almost  everyone’s schedule featured fine schools from the north coming south on “spring break”.   In the words of the old  Southern comedian, Dave Gardner, “…you ain’t never heard of anyone retiring to the north, have you?”

Baseball in Philadelphia in February or March?   New York,  Boston?   Teams from these areas would tell us “…this trip is the first time we have been  on a field.  Or outdoors.

Consider a couple of other points:  1. Certain sports played in extremely cold weather can cause bad injuries.   Pitchers and tennis players are examples.  2. “Spring Sports” teams aside,  travel in northern areas are much more apt to be more dangerous for all teams.   Ask veteran  basketball coaches  about late nights and bad weather in the dark.  Once you get above about Richmond, Va., it changes.   Forty years of  watching weather have proven that to me.

3. Vans, buses, and planes with loads of college kids are dangerous enough.  Add severe weather often experienced due north, to inexperienced, or young, or ambitious coaches and players, and a recipe for tragedy looms.