Long before Colin Kaepernick made national headlines by not standing for the national anthem, college athletics were immersed in a similar controversy in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Those were tumultuous times with the historic civil rights movement and the United States’ involvement with the controversial Vietnam War. A form of protest, especially by African-Americans, was to not stand for the national anthem
A 1972 Los Angeles Times article mentioned that Louisville’s basketball did not leave its dressing room for the national anthem, with coach Denny Crum claiming the team was superstitious after losing its opener while on the court for the anthem. Of course, that caused a stir.
The same article mentioned that the national anthem was not played for games at Northern Illinois that year because, as the school president said back then, “tensions are high,” with black students. When UCLA played at Oregon and Cal during the 1970-71 season, large groups of black fans did not stand during the national anthem.
In the 1972-73 season, black cheerleaders at Creighton walked off the basketball court when the national anthem was played and returned shortly after it ended.
Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was a teenage Muslim who refused to stand for the national anthem before his games with UCLA. To avoid public outrage, John Wooden reportedly kept his team off the court while the national anthem was played. Many other teams reportedly followed suit and waited until the anthem was over to come out of the locker room.
With Kaepernick’s national-anthem stance gaining traction among his generation, ignited by cases of reported police brutality against blacks, the possibility exists that today’s college athletes could try to rekindle the controversial movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. They may join Kaepernick in not standing for the national anthem.
The NCAA has no rules in place regarding a student-athlete’s involvement with the national anthem. It does not require that the “Star Spangled Banner” be played before events. As is customary, the venues elect to play the national anthem before competition takes place.
During the 2015 NCAA softball tournament, the Louisiana-Lafayette regional sparked some controversy by announcing to fans that the national anthem would not be played before the third game. That did not keep fans from singing the “Star-Spangled Banner”, which prompted some of the players to remove their caps and remain standing.
Louisiana-Lafayette did not play the national anthem as a form of protest. The NCAA’s official softball Twitter account later clarified that the national anthem was skipped because it had already been played “before the first full game of the session.”
Cajuns fans, upset that the national anthem wouldn't be played a second time today, just started singing. Awesome. pic.twitter.com/5jLsLTDU9d
— Luke Johnson (@ByLukeJohnson) May 17, 2015
A lawsuit was filed 10 years ago against Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., that claimed a player named Jacob Bond was kicked off the football team for refusing to remove his helmet while the national anthem was played, an act he says was an act of protest over the Bush administration’s war in Iraq. Bond sought damages for being denied the experience of a college athlete by being kicked off the team, and because the college failed to adequately accommodate his disabilities with Asperger’s Syndrome and attention-deficit disorder.
According to the suit, the incident involving the national anthem took place during a practice, when it was played on an adjacent field as part of a competition unrelated to the football team. An assistant coach reportedly told the players to remove their helmets, the suit said. Bond claimed that he kept his helmet on and turned away, as an act of protest, leading Babcock to scream at him: “Why do you always have to be different?” The next day, Bond was off the team. The case was eventually dismissed with Bond requesting a public apology instead.
As today’s youth have learned through Kaepernick’s actions — as some of us experienced generations ago — the national anthem can spark a fervor among the masses. It is a situation in which the NCAA should stay the course and leave it up to the individual to exercise his or her first amendment rights just as long as it does not interfere with the normal preceding of the event.
The governing body should not have to explain itself as was the case in the Louisiana-Lafayette softball regional. It should not force venues to play the “Star-Spangled Banner.” It should not make it a requirement for athletes and coaches to stand while the national anthem is played.
If the controversy involving the national anthem made it through the civil unrest of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, it should come to pass with Kaepernick’s widely publicized stance. The most important element to come out of this national anthem uproar is for student-athletes to learn more about their freedom of expression, just so long as it is peaceful.
As Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has mentioned in recent interviews, nothing is more American than having that unalienable right of free speech of which Kaepernick is exercising. Thankfully, that freedom has not changed since the days Abdul-Jabbar chose not to stand for the national anthem while at UCLA. He carried on to superstar status. The country carried on.
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