PAGE 10 THE GRINNELL SCARLET 3: BLACK MARCH 8,1974

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by Dave Schechter

They couldn’t be farther from a-
greement on the issue at hand. Del‘k
nis Moss and Bill Bailey strongly
disagree with Edd Bowers as towhy
Bowers removed his two best play-
ers from the team. In fact the a-
greement ends there.

Bowers says that he removed the
two blacks from the team for "a
lack oi positive attitude in a team
situation.” The first thingthatlilloss
said to me was, “First of all we're
going to clarify the issue, We were
not thrown off the team. He can’t
fire me. We both quit.”

It has been a longtime sinceGrlnr
nell had awinningbasketball season.
Last year the team went 2719 with
Ray Boyd as coach and the four
Blacks left the team quitting in diSr
gust with Boyd.

Bowers took over as coach this
year and things should have been
better. The’ team got off to a hot
start, winning the Chicago tourna-
ment. Then the roof fell in.

The same dissension that hit the
team last year apparently infected
them this year. On February 21
Dennis Moss and Bill Bailey left
the team. immediately after they
either were removed or quit, Noble
Young and Rick Williams, the other
two Black members of the squad
quit the team in an apparentgesture
of both sympathy ior their team-
mates and dislike for Bowers.

Bowers denies there was a racial
problem and Moss and Bailey say
that that was the problem. “Ive
worried and Ive lost sleep and I
don’t think its a racial problem...
it was a problem with two indi-
viduals who had difficulty in a team
situation," said Bowers. Said
Bailey, “in response to what he had
said, about it wasn’ta racialissue...
’If it wasn’t racial, how come the
other Blacks left?"

Bailey and Moss both disagreed
that the blame ior the team Sits
nation could be placed on them.
Bailey commented, “In terms oi
what you (the reporter speaking oi
Bowers) were saying about the team
and us not fitting in the team cir-
cumstances, he didn’t have no team
He had two teams, By alienating the
blacks through this quota system...
He has a limitation oi two blacks
starting most oi the time,

”You see what Bowers is doing is
trying to institute a losing attitude
and to teach the players how to
accept losing. Basically we kind oi

, saw that thingsweren'tgolngright...

He’s (Bowers is) letting them be
content having their ass kicked and
being called chumps. You go to the
away games and see the response
of the home crowd. They go out to
see the chumps from Grinneil,..we
both come irom backgrounds where
we do not accept defeat but you get
up here and the man wants you to
accept defeat...Buwers doesn't want
them to command any respect or
any pride; pride and respect and
discipline just lock,” continued
Bailey who was leading scorer on
the Grinnell team and one of the
high scorers in the conference.

Bowers noted "Any time you play
a team sport there has to be a cers
taln amount of discipline - and to
many people discipline isabad word
...If all of the young menontheteam
could have understood each other
better l'm sure that for everyone
concerned the team situation would
have been more favorable."

Edd Bowers doesn’t feel that he
is a racist. Moss and Bailey feel
othBTWlse. They explain their being
made team co—captains.saidBailey,
“We tried to have some avenue of
communication but in thatrespecthe
was Just as redneck as Governor
Wallace (oi Alabama) because he
didnt want to hear what we were
saying
“It s the same reason that Boyd

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named the captain last year He
tried to use me as a liason bet
ween the white ballplayers and the
black ballplayers," noted Muss. He
feels that Bowers was simply try-
ing to appease the team’s black
players by naming him and Bailey
coscaptains this year. Bailey said
that even though they were co-cap-
tains of the team Bowers wouldn‘t
listen to them, Bailey said that
Bowers “doesn‘t know the game
of basketball "

Both Moss and Bailey feel that
there wastoomuchpressureonthem
to produce for the team, and the
Bowers didn’t not provide the play»
ers needed to take the pressure off
of them. Said Bailey, “There‘s too

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much pressure on us to produce ior
the team )ust to even keep the team
in the game.. We neéd peopletotake
the pressureoff ofus. Eecausewe're
almost likemarkedmen ‘Causethey
want to stop Dennis and they want
to stop me, Bowers did not have
players out lherc who could give
us any help. if the other players
had played on our level Grinnell
could have had the best team its
ever had. There’s too much pres—
sure on us as ballplayers; we've
got to carry the load,”

Moss and Bailey denied most clr
aims that they had insulted their
teammates, both physically andverr
bally, during practice or during
games. Said Bailey, “Intermsofme
insulting their playing ability; ii
you went to any of the games, if
you saw them, and you saw any of
the teams when we were with the
team and when we weren't with the
team i think their playing ability
(the other members oi the team)
speaks ior themselves. .ln terms
of your game, if you ’re insecure
about it you don’t need to get out
there in the first place, You know,
can't nobody insult my game..,Does
it make any sense to remove his
two co-captains, number one in
scoring and rebounding? Whatdoes
he have to fall back on? And then
by removing us he’s almost insur-
ing defeat.”

Bowers didn’t elaborate on what
he said were a series of incidents
leading up to his removing Moss
and Bailey from the team. He ex-
pressed respect for Noble Young,
one of the two Blacks that quit the
team after Moss and Bailey left
it, both as a player and as a young
man. Said Young o‘ver the phone,
“It was a conﬂict or how the team
should be run...l questioned some
things. Being a player, I had my
own views. i didn't agree with ev-
erythlng..,i wanted to end my cul-
leglate ball career under diiierent
circumstances...ile (Bowers) hand-
led it better than Boyd...Bowers
was more willing to give you a
chance."

Moss commented, “Black ball~
players have been shafted over the
years hero. in not getting the opp-
ortunity to play, not playing the
positions they want to play...li you
checked out the basketball situation
around Grinnell for the last four
years., I didn't even come out my

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sophomore year because i knew tnme
attitudes of the former coach...

a guard and he didnt want to pllay
me as a guard. There are not black
quarterbacks (guards running the
basketball offenses) in this league.

“Winning is the thing, You don't
get any respect by losing and BOWs
ers, he was actually protecting the
white ballplayers on the team and
reinforcing them by telling them

'you re Just as good a ball player
as Bailey and Moss; and you're a
better ballplayer than Rico Will-
iams. And they can't come uverWo
the complex and play any ball a-
gainst us, Relorting Bowers comm-
enting that he tried to adopt the
team’s style of play to ”streetball”
Bailey said, “What kind of ball do
the pros play? Sireetball.”

Of Bowers efforts to communicate
with them, Moss noted, “He’s got
to learn how to deal ,with ball»
players, cause he ain’t dealing with
no boys.,.you‘re dealing with a man,
you've got to treat me like a man
and stop running around like you’re
my elementary teacher.”

Bowers contends that he tried as
best as he knew how to communis
cate but “there was a lack of pro-
per communication. Perhaps in a
team situation, young men have to
be able to sacrifice, sometimes
their personal interests, for what's
best for the team,"

Both Moss and Bailey didn’t like
Bowers’ “terminology,” in the way
that they say he talked to and about
Blacks. They didn’t like Bowers
trying to “tell them how it is”
sulce ll'leydidn’t thinkBDwers, never
having been black or having lived
through their experiences, could
really tell them about it

About the Grinnell basketball pro-
gram Moss said, “If you're going
to be involved in something don’t
go out halfrstepping. If you’re going
to have a ball team, have a ball
team,,.’f‘hey (the opponents) take
Grinnell very lightly.,,Theycouldn’t
mold a team around us in three or
iour years? They got us here.”

Whites on the team didn’t want to
see their Black teammates do well,
Moss felt, since the whites would
consider this a bad reﬂection on
themselves.

Says Moss, “I’m up here or the
some reason as everyone else, the
education...They misuse the Black
student up here. there's no denying
that. He’s (Bowers) justperpetuating

it. He’s just using that liberal fins
esse but in a way you’ve got to watch

them liberals They’ll be talking a-

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bout one thing and they re doing and,
thei" "

Edd Bowers has been a coach at
Grinnell College ioi- many years.
In those years he feels that he has
dealt honestly and fairly with blar
ckS. He feels that he has tried to
do the best job that he knows how
with the basketball team. He feels
that Moss and Bailey, though being
two very talented basketball players,
nevertheless couldn’t fit into the
team situation as he, the coach, saw
it. He believes that he was thinking
at all times in terms of what would
be best for the team as a whole
He definitely doesnt believe that
this is a racial issue,

Dennis Moss and Bill Bailey feel
otherwise. They think that they got
the raw end of the deal from Bow-
ers, who they feel shouldn't be
coaching the team. Theybelievethat
he has discriminated againstBl'acks
an the basketball team. Theybelieve
that they were the two mostimpor»
tant members of the team, that the
team couldn’t win without them, and
that Bowers was wrong. They main-
tain that they quit the team rather
than take anymore abuse and humi-
liation. Overall they feel that there
is something definitely wrong with
the black~white sitnauonat Grinnell.
Neither side is 100% right in this
case. In my opinion there was a
racial angle to the issue. Whether
Bowers played it down, or Mossand
Bailey overplayed it can be debated
elsewhere. Grinnell‘s basketball
failure is not a current fad, and
unless something is done to quell
this situation; team fortunes will
not fare much better in the future.
To a certain extent Moss and Balls
ey are right, and i think that de
Bowers might agree with them, that
their quitting or being removedfrom
the team, is indirectly related to
the black»white problems that have
surfaced on this campus in recent
weeks. Whether a new coach is
needed, new rules, or whatever is
needed to get a winning team can
be debated elsewhere.

As in any issue blame canbehand»
ed out to both sides. Bill Bailey is
right in saying that legitimate lines
of communication must be openedas
the first step. ’A serious study,
not just of the athletics issue, but
of the entire spectrum of Black
White relations at Grinnell College
needs to be undertaken before ano—
ther unfortunate incident like this
one occurs again.

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