BCSP Tidbits . . .
Rhoden's controversial "$40 Million Slaves"
to be released this week
New York Times veteran sportswriter
Bill Rhoden's controversial new book, "Forty Million Dollar Slaves - The Rise, Fall and Redemption
of the Black Athlete" is expected to be released
this week, on July 12, by Crown Publishers.
Rhoden, who earned his bachelor's degree
and played football for the great Morgan State
teams of the late 60s and early 70s, has become
one of the nation's premier sportswriters since
join-ing the Times in 1983. He has written the "Sports
of the Times" column for more than a decade and was a consultant and guest on ESPN's
Sports Century series as well as a frequent guest on ESPN's The Sports
Reporters. He was also a writer on the documentary
Journey of the African-American Athlete, which won a Peabody Award for Broadcasting.
His new book chronicles the history of black athletic culture, dating back to slavery and the antebellum South to today's postintegration sports industry. According to the back cover of the book, Rhoden argues that "for all their money and fame, black athletes are lost, perhaps as never before."
Part of the book recounts Rhoden's experiences at Morgan State and the potential impact of the great Morgan State vs. Grambling games played in Yankee Stadium beginning in the late 1960s that ushered in the black college football classic games which are still prevalent today. That potential has yet to be realized, according to Rhoden.
In his Epilogue, Rhoden notes, "The evolution from being a Lost Tribe to $40 million slaves to completely free men and women is realizing that racism is more virulent and determined than ever before." He urges to keep up the struggle against it.
Alcorn State cited for
major violations in women's basketball
The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has placed a
one-year postseason ban on the Alcorn State
University women's basketball team and levied several other penalties for numerous rules violations in the
sport. The case involved, among other things, the playing of ineligible
players, impermissible extra benefits in the form of travel expenses,
improper financial aid and violations on limits for practices.
The committee concluded there was a lack of institutional control at
the university and made ethical conduct findings against the women's
head coach and her husband, who served as a volunteer coach for the team
and previously was employed as the university's men's basketball head coach.
"The committee concluded that Alcorn State's women's basketball program was plagued by a lack of direction and poor decision-making," the committee said in its report. "This mismanagement of the women's basketball program occurred even though the program was lead by an individual with 27 years of collegiate coaching experience (Head Coach Shirley Walker), all of it at Alcorn State."
The committee noted that the university has taken steps to regain institutional control but emphasized it was still troubled that the university believed all the violations were secondary in nature.
Walker was cited for allowing four student-athletes who were not full-time students or certified for initial eligibility to travel with the team. She also allowed three of them to practice with the team and one of them to receive financial aid when she was not eligible.
The coach and her staff also exceeded weekly limits on practices; failed to provide a day off from practice each week; allowed assistant coaches not certified to recruit off-campus to do so; and permitted her husband to actively coach, exceeding the four-coach limit in women's basketball.
In addition, the committee found that the head coach violated the NCAA's principle of ethical conduct by falsifying practice logs and providing "false and misleading information" to NCAA enforcement staff regarding several findings. The committee also charged the volunteer coach with an ethical conduct violation for providing false and misleading information to NCAA enforcement staff.
In addition to the postseason ban and the findings of lack of institutional control and ethical conduct, the Committee on Infractions has imposed some of the following penalties in this case:
• Public reprimand and censure;
• Three years of probation starting June 29, 2006;
• Loss of one scholarship in women's basketball for the 2006-07 academic year. The university can defer this penalty to 2007-08. The university previously reduced one scholarship for 2005-06, a penalty the committee adopted as its own.
• The women's basketball program was limited to 10 official visits in 2005-06, down from 12 visits, a self-imposed penalty by the university adopted by the committee as its own.
• The institution will vacate all contests in which the ineligible student-athlete who received impermissible financial aid participated, starting with the spring semester in 2003-04 through 2005-06, including the 2005 Division I women's basketball tournament. Individual records of this student-athlete must be vacated as well. The records must be configured in all women's basketball publications, and any public reference to the 2005 NCAA tournament appearance must be removed from, including but not limited to, public areas such as the basketball arena and athletics department stationary.
• The committee adopted as its own a university penalty that suspended the head coach from coaching duties for the first two regular season games in 2004-05.
• The university must not allow the head coach to participate in the first week of practice for three seasons starting in 2006-07. If the university does not withhold the coach from practice, it must appear before the committee and explain why it did not do so as part of the NCAA's "show cause" bylaw.
• The university must prohibit the volunteer coach from any coaching activity at the institution during the three-year probationary period. If the university does not do so, it must appear before the committee and explain its actions as part of the NCAA's "show cause" bylaw.
• The committee adopted as its own penalty the university's dissolution of the volunteer coaching position for 2004-05.
• The committee adopted as its own penalty the university's requirement that the women's basketball staff attend an NCAA regional compliance seminar in 2005-06.
• The head coach is barred from service on any NCAA committee during the three-year period of probation.
© 2006 Azeez Communications, Inc.