The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- December 20, 1999

Thoughts of the Day

Reform

Introducing a proposal that would have exempted wrestling from cuts in the sizes of coaching staffs:

"Mr. Chair, at the risk of becoming additional road kill on the freeway of reform, on behalf of the sponsors, I move adoption of Amendment-to-amendment No. 36-5."

-- Robert A. Bowlsby, director of athletics, Northern Iowa University, 1991 NCAA Convention

"For a long time, I held the view that the athletics scholarship may be the only way out of poverty and the inner city for many young people. Now, I'm not sure that doesn't actually do a disservice to those communities because some may believe it is the only way out.

"Isn't it really academically indefensible to grant admission to UCLA to someone with a 700 on his SAT and a 2.000 grade-point average? I can't see why we put ourselves in these positions."

-- Charles E. Young, chancellor, University of California, Los Angeles, 1990

"I see these great Southeastern Conference players in professional ball and then I think about the academic rules the NCAA has voted in, and I go, 'Hey, I wonder if this kid or that kid would've ever gotten a chance?' I'm afraid I know the answer to that in a lot of cases.

"I understand that we need some limits out there. We shouldn't be signing a bunch of kids who can't do college work. But I don't want somebody standing there with a pencil and a calculator saying, 'You deserve a scholarship because you made an 18 on your ACT,' and then turn to another kid and say, 'Sorry, son. You just made a 16. You don't belong in college.'"

-- Nolan Richardson, men's basketball coach, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 1995

Asked what basketball coaches should do if reform measures, particularly financial aid and coaching-staff limitations, were not re-examined:

"Strike. Don't show up for practice at the Final Four. Delay the games. The players decide they're not going to play ....

"There isn't a shared vision among coaches and presidents. There seems to be a lack of trust...

"People who get redress for grievances are people who take extreme steps. That seems to be (what's happening) in our society today. Those people who deal with sensitive issues in calm and gentle terms, they don't get much respect. The people who get out and are demonstrative and do things in an aggressive manner are people who get their grievances answered."

-- George Raveling, s basketball coach, University of Southern California, 1992

Amateurism

"The college community needs to get off its high horse and deal with these things. Athletes ought to be allowed to test the water (in professional sports). We're just flat wrong to not let these kids give it a whirl."

-- Ferdinand A. Geiger, director of athletics, Ohio State University, 1997

Coaches

"Until we have presidents who have the fortitude, the guts, the courage to look at their alumni and simply say, 'I don't care that my coach was 5-21; I don't care if the stands weren't filled; I just care about the fact that all my players here have graduated and are really class youngsters,' there will be a major problem.

"As long as the message being sent out loud and clear is that you must win, win, win, a coach tries to take a shortcut. I don't blame the coach."

-- Dick Vitale, ESPN basketball commentator, 1990

Title IX

"There is no place for discrimination in sports. Discrimination goes against the very grain of what competition is all about. In sports, we encourage and reward only on performance. In our history, sports have been the great equalizer, crossing all artificial social and class distinctions and barriers. We need to showcase sports as a model of equality in American society.' "

-- Norma V. Cantu, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, 1995

"You have people who insist that the only possible reason that we would have more male athletes than female athletes is discrimination. I would say, 'Are we going to look everywhere in our society and say that if we don't have the exact representation of every ethnic group, gender, etc., are we going to ask the federal government to intercede and endorse a quota?'"

-- Leo Kocher, wrestling coach, University of Chicago, 1997

Finances

"How did we ever get to the point where, in order to participate in intercollegiate sports, an athlete needs a mahogany locker or a carpet that's four times more plush than you have in your living room? In major sports, the colleges have gotten into an arms race. Why can't we scale that back? Then every school can find that half million (dollars) to keep other programs going."

-- Steve Erber, director of athletics, Muhlenberg College, 1997