Clemson University [monuments & names]

[jazzcyclist]

I'm guessing that folks who think athletes should "just shut up and play" must be pulling their hair out when they flip the channel to ESPN these days, because some of their shows have become indistinguishable from the shows on the cable news channels.

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile.....

Lake Charles and Calcasieu Parish has been filled with controversy and tension after our parish government by a vote of 10-5 refused to take down the Confederate South’s Defenders Monument. Hurricane Laura had other plans and brought it down herself.

https://mobile.twitter.com/davantele...67952365150209

[gh]

Illinois State AD steps in it

ISU athletic director apologizes to student-athletes for saying “All Redbird Lives Matter”


https://week.com/2020/08/28/isu-athl...JBXAKWKxQkzt1M

[DrJay]

Call for Kentucky's Rupp Arena to be renamed.
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/31/90690...ed-racial-past

[gh]

Call for Kentucky's Rupp Arena to be renamed.
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/31/90690...ed-racial-past

a stat that surprised me a little

<<Over his entire career at Kentucky, Adolph Rupp coached just a single Black player, beginning with his first season in 1930 through his retirement in 1972. >>

[user4]

a stat that surprised me a little
<<Over his entire career at Kentucky, Adolph Rupp coached just a single Black player, beginning with his first season in 1930 through his retirement in 1972. >>

That is bizarre. Can only imagine how many very talented kids he could have pulled out of Louisville Kentucky and given them a chance at a college education. Very sad.

[Conor Dary]

I was surprised he had any. It was 1966 when his all white team lost to an all black starting team in the NCAA final.

[gh]

I was surprised he had any. It was 1966 when his all white team lost to an all black starting team in the NCAA final.

and I would have assumed that would have given him the same kind of wakeup call that Sam Cunningham sent to Alabama football a few years later

[bad hammy]

And the one he did coach - Tom Payne - had the one attribute you can't coach up - height (7' 1"). (Payne shortly thereafter began his career as a rapist.)

[Conor Dary]

and I would have assumed that would have given him the same kind of wakeup call that Sam Cunningham sent to Alabama football a few years later

You would think so.

[Conor Dary]

And the one he did coach - Tom Payne - had the one attribute you can't coach up - height (7' 1"). (Payne shortly thereafter began his career as a serial rapist.)

Payne said in a 2015 interview with WHAS-TV that he regretted his past behavior and was reformed.

[TN1965]

I was surprised he had any. It was 1966 when his all white team lost to an all black starting team in the NCAA final.

After that final loss, Rupp allegedly said "I want those n****** on my team" or something to that effect.

It's not a big surprise that he was able to recruit only one Black player after that. I mean, if you are a Black player, would you want to be the first in school under a coach who has dubious reputation? Or would you want to be on a team that is already integrated? I wonder how other SEC teams fared in recruiting Black players. According to the wiki article, that game was a trigger that integrated SEC basketball.

[DrJay]

Rupp recruited both Wes Unseld (Seneca HS, Louisville '64) and Butch Beard (Breckenridge County HS '65). Don't know what that recruiting looked like, but both opted to attend U of L and roomed together there. They each were chosen as Kentucky's high school Mr. Basketball their respective senior years. They actually met in the 1964 HS State Championship game, with Seneca and Unseld prevailing. The next year, Beard led Breckenridge County to the title.

[user4]

And the one he did coach - Tom Payne - had the one attribute you can't coach up - height (7' 1"). (Payne shortly thereafter began his career as a rapist.)

Payne also went on to be a dabbler in professional boxing... I had never heard of him in any capacity.

[tandfman]

Illinois State AD steps in it

ISU athletic director apologizes to student-athletes for saying “All Redbird Lives Matter”


https://week.com/2020/08/28/isu-athl...JBXAKWKxQkzt1M

Things seem to have escalated:

Headline - Illinois State athletes boycott practices after athletic director commented 'All Redbird Lives Matter' during a video call about race

https://www.pantagraph.com/illinois-...1a07b136a.html