CHARGES, CIRCUMSTANCES

True Facts Revealed About USL-NCAA Case

The National Collegiate Athletic Association(NCAA) recently released a resolution charging the University of Southwestern Louisiana with eight violations of NCAA regulations.

The NCAA then placed Southwestern on two years' probation and said that during the probation that USL's basketball team would not be permitted to participate in any postseason competition.

There have been many half-truths printed by misinformed persons claiming to be authorities on the subject. The Advertiser feels that its readers –– the supporters of USL –– deserve the whole truth.

Printed below you will find each NCAA charge with the facts following. Every person interested in USL is urged to read the entire text.

WHEREAS, the NCAA Committee on Infractions has investigated alleged violations of NCAA legislation on the part of the University of Southwestern Louisiana, and has reported its findings to the Council:

WHEREAS, the Council has found the University of Southwestern Louisiana to have violated the principle governing financial assistance to student-athletes (NCAA Constitution 3-4-(a) and (c), in that:

NCAA CHARGE

1. At the beginning of the 1966-67 college year, the University permitted an outside organization to pay the educational expenses of three student-athletes to attend the institution. Inasmuch as University athlete department personnel promised financial assistance to the three young men and such aid was ultimately provided, it is held that the student athletes involved were unaware that the assistance came from an outside source.

THE FACTS

In 1966 the University of Southwestern offered a basketball scholarship to Jessie Marshall of Princeton, La., a Negro youth, but the athletic committee of the State Board of Education, Frederick Tannehill of Pineville, V. J. Scogin of Slidell and Angus D. Smith of New Orleans, along with Gulf States Conference Commissioner Stanley Galloway said that USL could not offer Marshall a scholarship because he had signed a football grant-in-aid with Grambling. There was no rule on the books that said that Southwestern had to honor a Grambling signee but the athletic committee came up with one and made it clear to all concerned that they did not want Southwestern recruiting Negro athletes.

When three Negro athletes indicated to USL basketball coach Beryl Shipley that they would like to attend USL he agreed to let the Lafayette Business League pay the educational expenses of the athletes since it was clear they could not be put on a regular Gulf States Conference grant-in-aid.

All monies used in financing the scholarships were run through the University's Administrative Office and neither the Athletic Staff, nor any outside persons had any actual control over these monies.

After the students were admitted to the University there was an investigation by Mr. David S. Seely, Assistance Commissioner of the Equal Educational Opportunities Program and he concluded that the Negro athletes in question had been discriminated against and that there was an apparent violation of the Civil Rights Act. As a result of the investigation and conclusion, the three Negro athletes have since been placed on regular scholarship. The actual rule violation was not that the outside organization raised the monies for the scholarship but that they specified which athletes were to receive the monies.

There is no denying that Southwestern broke a rule. But it was not intentional and would not have even come up if the athletic committee of the State Board of Education had allowed the athletes to be placed on regular scholarship.

NCAA CHARGE

2. Inasmuch as the decision to financially assist the three young men was made by members of the University's athletic staff rather than the institution's regular committee of scholarships and grants-in-aid, the recipients were not provided with a proper written statement describing the amount, duration, terms, and conditions of the award. Further the procedures followed in making these awards placed the University's department of athletics in administrative control of the financial assistance awarded to the three student athletes.

3. The form utilized by the University of Southwestern Louisiana to notify recipients of awards made to them and describe such awards did not meet NCAA requirements.

THE FACTS

A regular committee on scholarship and grants in aid was not operating at the University of Southwestern at that time. When the University joined the NCAA they did not realize that it was necessary to have such a committee approve all scholarships and so, technically, Southwestern again violated a rule of the NCAA.

As it was pointed out in the above facts –– all monies contributed by the Lafayette Business League were run through the University's Administrative Office, and neither the Athletic Staff, nor any outside persons had any actual control over those monies.

The form used to sign Leslie Scott, Marvin Winkler, and Elvin Ivory was the regular form used by the Gulf States Conference and provided to the school by GSC Commissioner Stanley Galloway.

This should not be held against USL. The NCAA apparently recognized the form was drafted by the GSC as they pointed out in a December 20th memorandum that "the Gulf States Conference has modified the form used to describe the amount, duration, terms and conditions of awards made to student-athletes to bring it into conformity with the NCAA requirements."

NCAA CHARGE

WHEREAS, the Council has found the University of Southwestern Louisiana to have violated the provisions governing recruiting (NCAA Bylaw 6-1) in that:

1. Members of the University of Southwestern Louisiana's athletic staff recruited prospective student-athletes with the offers of institutional financial assistance and provided the prospects with written statements to the effect that such assistance would be available to them.

THE FACTS

This refers back to the illegal scholarship forms that the GSC was using and also to the fact that Southwestern later had to rely on outside funds to give the athletes scholarships.

________

NCAA CHARGE

2. During the late summer of 1967, a representative of the University's athletic interests provided a prospective student-athlete with an unsecured loan in order that the prospect could pay his air transportation to the University's campus for the purposes of reporting for 1967 preseason football practice and eventual enrollment at the University.

THE FACTS

Larry Highbaugh, a highly-sought after Negro athlete from Indiana, decided that he would attend the University of Southwestern Louisiana but because his parents wanted the youth to attend Indiana University he did not have the money to report to USL for pre-season football practice.

Woodrow Crum, head basketball coach at Central High School in Lawrence, Indiana, gave Highbaugh $75 to fly to Lafayette. Crum got no security for the loan and since he was also a friend of Beryl Shipley and his assistant Tom Cox, Crum was labeled a representative of the University of Southwestern Louisiana's athletic interests.

This is a rule violation. But Art Bergstrom, NCAA assistant executive director, said in an interview with Will Grimsley of the Associated Press after the announcement of the NCAA action in New York that USL was not penalized for this infraction because although it was a rule violation it was not deemed serious enough to warrant a probation since Highbaugh did not remain at USL and did not participate in preseason football workouts.

NCAA CHARGE

WHEREAS, the Council has found the University of Southwestern Louisiana to have violated the provisions governing recruiting NCAA Bylaw 6-2-(b), and Bylaw 6-7-(a) in that:

1. The University permitted an outside organization to pay the educational expenses of a prospective student athlete to attend the institution's 1965 summer session.

THE FACTS

Elvin Ivory attended summer school prior to the start of the 1966-67 school year and his educational expenses were covered by the Lafayette Business League. This again goes back to the fact that the University could not put Ivory on a regular scholarship.

NCAA CHARGE

WHEREAS, the Council has found the University of Southwestern Louisiana to have violated the provisions governing recruiting (NCAA Bylaw 5-8) in that:

1. During the late summer and early fall of 1965 football coaches of the University recruited a student-athlete enrolled in another four-year institution without first contacting the director of athletics of that institutions and obtaining his permission.

THE FACTS

Billy Mistric wished to leave Louisiana State University after playing his freshman year there. When he told his mother of this decision, she asked Billy to contact Daniel Roy, an assistant at USL who had coached Billy at Glen Oaks in Baton Rouge and become very close to the boy, Billy asked Roy only what he thought about the move and Roy told him that he could not get involved since it would be a violation of the NCAA rules.

Billy later thought it over and came to the USL campus. LSU Athletic Director James J. Corbett then charged that USL had come on the campus and attempted to persuade the youth to leave LSU during the summer. The late LSU athletic director insisted that USL recruited Mistric away from the LSU campus but this was proven not to be fact.

The rule violation was that Roy did not contact Corbett when the youth contacted him. The NCAA committee concluded that while the incident was a violation, it was technical in nature and resulted from the prospective student-athlete actually but unknowingly maneuvering USL into the act of violation.

NCAA CHARGE

WHEREAS, the Council has found the University of Southwestern Louisiana to have violated the provisions governing playing and practice seasons (NCAA Bylaw 8-1 (b), in that:

1. Beginning on or about October 10, 1966, the head basketball coach of the University, with the knowledge and consent of the institution's director of athletics, conduced several practice sessions in basketball in order to evaluate the skills of certain candidates and determine the personnel of the University's 1966-67 basketball squads.

THE FACTS

Shipley, athletic director A. G. Urban and University President Clyde Rougeou were called on the carpet several times by the State Board of Education's athletic committee and Galloway when it was learned that the Negroes were going to attend the University.

Shipley and Urban did not reveal to the athletic committee that the youths were contacted by USL. They, in fact, led the state board to believe that the Negroes had been sent by an outside organization to "test" USL.

It is obvious why Shipley and Urban left this impression. To admit the recruiting of the Negroes would have opened the door for the State Board's athletic committee to take punitive action against not only Rougeou but the entire University.

When the athletic committee finally found out the whole story during the NCAA investigation (one member of the state board confided that the athletic committee knew what was going on the entire time) they came out in the open with their attempts to hurt the basketball program and in particular Shipley.

Through pressure from members of the state board, the executive committee of the Gulf States Conference was persuaded to adopt a resolution declaring Southwestern ineligible for the GSC title for two years. One member of the executive committee, composed of each school's athletic committee chairman, said he was not in favor of the resolution, feeling that USL had been punished enough, but that he had been instructed to vote for the resolution.

Then came the wave of criticism out of Lafayette and that is when the Lafayette Legislative team of Sen. Edgar Mouton, Rep. Luke LeBlanc and Reps-Elect Dan Guilliet and Fred Hayes requested a meeting with the State Board of Education and Education Supt. William Dodd.

The local legislators did not go to Baton Rouges with threats of race riots or to be used as "tools" by Negro racists. They went to protest that their University was being punished too severely for violations brought on by the State Board's unwritten rule. At no time was there any threat of riots on the part of an outside organization.

It was during one of the early investigations on the part of the State Board's athletic committee and Galloway that the early practice was ordered. In a Lafayette motel room with President Rougeou, Urban, Shipley, Galloway and Smith present, Galloway said to Rougeou, "If I were president (of USL) I would find a way to keep them from playing. I would flunk them on the test (the test administered by each member of the NCAA to see if a student can project a scholastic average of 1.6)

Rougeou then informed Galloway that the Negroes had already passed the test. Galloway then instructed Shipley to hold an early practice and see how many Negroes were going to make the team. Shipley told Galloway that this would be a violation of NCAA rules but Galloway responded by saying he would take full responsibility, Shipley held the early workouts and had Urban inform Galloway and the athletic committee that three of the Ne-

see conclusion page 41

[End of Document]

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