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Show May 14. 1970 THE UTAH INDEPENDENT Page 6 THI NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION VOLUME 6 NUMBER College Football 11 .. ."An American Tradition" ... 1869-196- 9 A SpecimE NEW JFemtmire By the NEWS Staff a result of persuasion, coercion and threats of bodily harm to loved ones, some black athletes of the United States who wanted to compete in As the 1968 Olympic Games did not do so. There was considerable evidence at that time of an organized, outside pressure campaign designed to convince, by assorted means, black athletes to boycott the United States team as a protest symbol in the conviction this would advance the domestic Civil Rights movement. A similar, more drastic program is evident in recent incidents involving black athletes at various NCAA member institutions. This is an analysis of these occurrences prepared by the NEWS staff after a series of interviews and a study of authoritative documents, including the hearings this past summer of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (commonly referred to as the McClellan Committee) into the nation's riots and disorders, including the role of various student organizations. The evidence is clear that there is operating in this country a revolutionary force designed to destroy the present governmental and educational system of the United States. It divides into a number of different groups and representatives of this movement have direct communication with Communist-orientaterevolutionary groups in other nations. hard-cor- e Government documents make it apparent that the Black Panther Party leaders are hard line insurrectionists who intend to gain their goals by violence and force. Many leaders of the Black Panther Party (BPP) have formed alliances with and supported the views of numerous other highly militant organizations, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP). The Black Student Union was originally known at its inception in 1963 as the Negro Student Association. It was developed and organized at Merritt College, Oakland, Calif., by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, two of the ' principal leaders of the Black Panthers. According to testimony of competent witnesses before the McClellan Committee, other Black Panther leaders identified with the Black Student Union include: Harry Edwards , former instructor at San Jose State College, who at last report was a student at or attached to the staff of Cornell University; George Mason Murray , identified as a professor at San Francisco State College; Virtual Morrell , circulation manager of the BPP newspaper and at present reported to be the coordinator of delegates for the Black Student Union; James Garrett, a forerunner of the Black Panther activists in San Francisco, who became national president of the Black Student Union, at latest report an assistant professor of creative writing at Federal City College in Washington, D. C. Have Same Addresses, Motives The Black Student Union and the Black Panther Party have listed the same address for their respective national offices; i.e., 3106 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California. Responsible intelligence officers of the Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D. C., police departments have provided the McCellan Committee with a vast number of documents which establish the structure and violent motives of these groups. The Black Student Union (the Black Student Alliance in some instances) does not appear at this time to have a solid, centralized national organizabranches, with BSU opertion. The organization consists of ating at the college level and BSA at the high school level but they get semi-autonomo- wired together. us 1969 MILITANT GROUPS Ben Stewart, chairman of the BSU at San Francisco State, however, states that the Black Student Union is moving toward revolutionary nationalism through the vanguard leadership of the BPP. There undoubtedly are a number of persons who have innocently associated themselves with the BSU on various campuses, but the evidence is overwhelming that the BSU and the BPP are destructive forces intending to use almost any device to disrupt and destroy. Intercollegiate athletics is a prime target and vehicle for them because of the publicity value inherent in sports and the fact that the Negro or black athlete involved in a mild disorder will be a subject of newsprint from, coast to coast whereas the acts of a BSU party member may only be reported in the less-publiciz- ed campus newspaper. The Black Student Union is proliferating across the country, organizing groups in high schools and colleges. One technique is to place BSU organi- zational outlines in the mail boxes of high school and college Negro instructors. One such 11 point outline urges organization of a black athlete union because the black athlete is a "powerful" student force and "special efforts should be made to politicize all black athletes, so that if any trouble starts they will realize whose side they really are on." -- The Name of the Game d, The Students for a Democratic Society is one of the better known groups which falls into this category. Another is the Black Panther Party. There has been cooperation between the two groups in pianning and celebrations; there is evidence, however, that these associations do not work smoothly at all times on the campus level. DECEMBER, The BSU or its representatives, associates or sympathizers play the game rough. This is evident in the threatening of the Philadelphia home and a black track athlete, promising to disfigure the girl friend of a black college basketball player, cuffing and slapping Washington Coach Jim Owens' daughter and slashing the tires on Iowa Coach Ray Nagel's automobile. mother of NEWS interviews clearly indicate that a substantial number of black ath- letes do not want to be involved with the hard-cor- e insurrectionists; they do not want to be separated and polarized from their teammates, and they do not wish to be alienated from their coaches. In some cases, it's a matter of "blood oaths" and threats such as "we'll get you if you don't" or "you'd better not come home if you make the trip" which force racial loyalty. the recent University of Wyoming situation, reliable information indicates plans were laid last summer to create an incident in the Rocky Moun-tai- n foot-ba- ll area. A Western Athletic Conference member with a stern-typ- e coach was to be selected as the target. The candidate colleges were narrowed to two, and the University of Wyoming finally was picked; Brigham Young University would be the trigger. The outside leader in this case was the head of the Denver BPP, Willie Dawkins, who came to that city from Oakland. (At one time, he was an undergraduate student at Harvard.) On campus, the spokesman for the 14 athletes involved, in the final analysis, was Willie Black neither athlete nor student in his first year at Wyoming as a graduate teaching assistant in mathematics. In At press time, the latest rumble was at Pepperdine College. Negro track athletes demanded that the track coach be fired. Outside planning and pressures were evident as the role of leader and spokesman immediately was assumed by the local BSU head. Since the planners were not making much headway in the track arena, pressure was brought on the black bas- less-publiciz- ed ketball players to boycott Pepperdine's first intercollegiate game. If they had been successful, four Pepperdine players would have been left to compete against Utah State, Dec. 1. The basketball squad held together, not wishing to waste the hard work spent preparing for the season. evident that one of the basic aims of the militants is to polarize the races. It is equally evident that there cannot be athletic esprit de corps or teamwork on that basis. Several NCAA members have stressed that the It is k1 A A NoAC Published times a year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, executive and editorial offices, Midland Building, Kansas City, Mo. 64105. Phone: BAlti-mo- re (A.C. 816). Executive Director, Walter Byers; Editor, Thomas C. Hansen; Assistants, Louis J. Spry, Jon A. Foley, Mary L. Ehwa. 11 127 A- - Underlining by NRG |