The Kansas City Times from Kansas City, Missouri • 29

(Dy Kansas (Tity gTrnicg Sports Business Tuesday January 11 1983 if Section NCAA considers asking for antitrust exemption Black schools oppose academic proposal By Jonathan Rand today If passed the proposal would go into effect In August 1886 Proposal No 48 would require a high school athlete desiring an athletic scholarship to a Division I school to have a minimum 20 high school grade-point average (on a 4-point scale) and have achieved a minimum of 20 in a high school core curriculum of 11 specified courses including three years of English two years of math and two years of social and either natural or physical By Stove Richardson AMsmbsr of Sis Sports Staff SAN DIEGO A coalition of 114 predominantly black universities stands adamantly opposed to an American Council on Education proposal that would toughen academic requirements at National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I schools "It would destroy our GrambHng University President Joe Johnson said Monday in an address to delegates at the 77th NCAA convention "We participate in Division Black educators charge that Proposal No 48 which would require an American College Test (ACT) or Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score be used to determine a high school eligibility for an athletic scholarship in Division I would be racially and regionally discriminatory The proposal is supported by most major football-playing schools and big-time basketball schools and has been publicly endorsed by the College Football Association It was toe subject of a three-hour discussion Monday and is scheduled for a vote trols of in-season college football television for the first time since before the 1092 season "It (the NCAA) has never faced such peril since Us inception" said Wiles Hallock Padfic-10 commissioner and chairman of the Football Television Committee The resolution would: Authorise the Football Television Committee to conduct hearings on the legal ramifications of the decision of toe court and thereafter allow the committee to formulate a 1983 football television plan It would be submitted to each division for approval Each division could have a special convention for approval of the plan Provide members an opportunity at the hearings conducted by the committee to propose changes in the television plan in accordance with the decision Allow the Television Committee to seek further rulings from the Fed- See NCAA Page C-3 Col 4 By Stove Richardson AMNntarolVwapwteS Ml SAN DIEGO Seating an antitrust tstmptV from Congrau could be one option tor National Collegiate Athletic Aaoodation school If they looe an upcoming court decision on a controversial football television contract Requesting an exemption is one of several options the schools would have according to a resolution that will be placed in front of the membership today by the 21-member NCAA council It was disclosed Monday that the lawyers already have been asked to draft a bill that would exclude NCAA television football plans from federal antitrust laws Later Monday the College Football Association voted to seek a similar exemption for its proposed television plan provided toe NCAA votes to seek one Hie four-year $281 million football television contract with ABC sciences If toe education council had left it See BLACK Page Cl Col 1 CBS and WTBS (Turner Broadcasting System) has been challenged by the University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia The two universities which claim that the NCAA vi- Court of Appeals in Denver last September Hie case is being studied by judges in Denver As things stand now if the NCAA loses the case there would be no con olates antitrust laws with the football television plan won a court case in Oklahoma City Federal District Court against the NCAA before the case was appealed to the 10th US Circuit More than a clunker down from the racks 7-4 Eaton works hard to tune his game VL HS mV flyr I JPJp ft FW One of the tire store's customers Tom Lubin was an assistant coach at Cypress Lubin the same man who found Swen Nater of the San Diego Clippers walking around campus and persuaded him to try basketball finally got Eaton to play after a selling job of several months In first season Cypress went 34-2 and the Phoenix Suns drafted him in the fifth round something they could do then because his regular college class was graduating But the Suns didn't show enough interest to impress Eaton so he returned to Cypress and won junior-college All-America honors as the team went 31-5 and won the California state championship For the first time in his career Eaton was in demand He chose nearby UCLA over many other schools but things didn't work out He scored just 53 points in two seasons one under Larry Brown and one under Larry Farmer Before Eaton's senior season Farmer promised him a shot at the starting center spot But when the opening game came highly touted freshman Stuart Gray was starting Things went downhill from there "I play in our last eight or nine games He left me home on the last road trip" Eaton said the end of the season I was depressed I felt all my hard work was going up in smoke knew if I had the opportunity I could do something But I didn know if I get that opportunity I knew people had heard of me and probably thought I was a stiff because I play more at UCLA Eaton improved his position with solid work in all-star camps and in the California Pro Summer League and the Jazz drafted him in the fourth See EATON Page 04 Col I By Tom Whitfield A Mwntwr of lh Sport Stall SALT LAKE CITY At 7 feet 4 inches and 290 pounds a 290 as the scouts like to say Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz takes up more space than any other player in the National Basketball Association also a cinch he is the only one who began a serious basketball career after being discovered in a tire store He was working as an automobile mechanic doing brake jobs front-end alignments and tuneups when an assistant coach from Cypress (Calif) College a junior college happened by and was impressed by his size That started a chain of events that led to his be-coming the back- up center for the Jazz who play host to the Kings tonight at 8:30 Central time at the Salt Palace see a lot of guys in the NBA and I think a lot of them appreciate the situation they have come up through toe ranks with people tolling them how great they are" said Eaton a rookie who will become 28 later this month been in a different situation where I had to work lOor 12 hours a day" Eaton played some basketball at Westminster High School in Orange County Calif but his primary sport was water polo No colleges offered scholarships so he figured his athletic career was over He went to automotive trade school and landed a series of jobs in his field "I had all the licenses for California" he said had to work hard but I made good money over $20000 a The 7(ers felt the wrath of Kurt Rambis (left) In losing the 82 championship series to the Lakers So who is Clark Kent clone? Just a power to be reckoned with Colleges ditch Status quo Except for somebody who's taken a lengthy vacation on another planet it shouldn't come as a revelation that most of our major institutions of learning have sold academic standards down the river to develop highly professional athletic programs that produce big money and prestige For winning programs business is booming and mining the mother lode of television money barely has begun Hie money is so big and the system so widely accepted by the public that you have to wonder whether it's too late for universities to turn back from the road down which marching Some educators apparently believe not too late because 11 proposals aimed at toughening academic requirements for athletes will be made at the legislative session of the National Collegiate Athletic Association convention which began Monday and runs through Wednesday in San Diego- A high school athlete now needs a average to be eligible for an athletic scholarship at an NCAA school and needs to pass 24 hours in his previous two semesters to remain eligible to compete This rule is too lenient because marginal students routinely are given scholarships and kept eligible with courses that do not count toward a degree The system works for athletes skilled enough to become professionals But the vast majority earn no degree and drift into a crowded job market with nothing but fleeting memories of athletic glory This situation has made hypocrites of many educators several of whom this week will push for tougher requirements in awarding scholarships and restrictions on the number of useless courses athletes may take There is sentiment that an athlete should be allowed only so many courses in community hygiene and camp counseling and should take enough arts and science courses to show satisfactory progress toward a degree If this sounds like a snap solution it is not Toughened scholarship and eligibility standards could deny athletic scholarships at NCAA schools to a large segment of black high school athletes Society turns its back on many of these youngsters until they are found to have value as athletes Then suddenly after underfunded inner-city schools and adverse socioeconomic conditions have denied them adequate preparation they are thrust into highly competitive college classrooms Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer once conceded that a high school student with a average college material but suggested that merely being in a college atmosphere improves him socially and enhances his chances for success To shut out such athletes he said would deny someone like former Oklahoma running back Greg Pruitt the opportunity to earn a degree There's a logical rule of thumb that should be used here: If a school is giving an athlete a legitimate chance to earn a degree it is giving him an opportunity Otherwise exploiting him and that crucial difference should be reflected in any academic legislation passed by the NCAA nothing wrong with a university preparing a student for a career in professional sports as long as in the context of pursuing a degree A proposal by the College Football Association would provide that a non-qualifier could receive a scholarship and practice but would lose a year of eligibility That would leave an avenue open for the marginal athlete serious about seeking a degree Perhaps such a student should be required to pass a standardised tost to become eligible That would compel universities to make sure athletes who are marginal students acquire basic reading and writing skills before being allowed to compete If the NCAA toughens academic standards professional football and the National Basketball Association undoubtedly would emulate major-league baseball with farm systems for talented athletes who cant get or want scholarships Athletes not inclined toward college would be better off They would get paid over the table and learn quickly whether the time they devote to pursuing a pro career is well spent But educators are kidding themselves they believe they can raise academic standards for athletes without making sacrifices What will university presidents and donors say If the next Patrick Ewing polishes his game in the Continental Basketball Association instead of at Georgetown? Higher academic standards clearly will be bad for business and it remain to be seen whether universities are willing to bite that bullet Frankly 1 doubt It them he wasnt in the lineup Hie second time I was hurt So still got the same question always had: is this guy anyway? Kurt Rambis is the starting power forward for the Lakers the defending NBA champions He has had the position since he survived an unlikely twist of events last season his rookie year and in his first start last January he had a 14-re-bound performance in just 25 minutes against Indiana He went on to start 43 of the final 45 games of the season He is 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighs See RAMBIS Page 04 Col 1 By Roy Johnson Th New York Tlmo NEW YORK This is a forum of some of the National Basketball Association's best power forwards The question is: What was the first thought you had when playing the Los Angeles Lakers and seeing that you would be matched against this guy in the funny-looking glasses named Kurt Rambis? Lonnie Shelton what about you? "Well I knew that he had to be better than he looked or he be starting for them I mean he look like he could do much with those black glasses and all Maurice Lucas? "When I saw him I could've figured it was going to be my night an easy one Yeah but I learned a long time ago not to underestimate any player Now Buck Williams "When I saw him I said man is this going to be I said be But he sure fooled Dan Roundfield? it or not never played against him We only play them two times a year He was a rookie last season and the first time we played Vagabond man Former Pem-Day star heads for Hawaii still searching for spot where he belongs ByJackEtkin A Mwntef of th Sport Staff Hie collegiate travelogue of John Addison after stopovers in two very desirable locations has added a third exotic leg one that is bound to confirm to skeptics and strangers that the former Pembroke-Country Day basketball legend has become a good talent gone bad and nothing more than a hardwood vagabond After quitting the Southern Methodist team last month Addiscn a junior left the Dallas school and transferred this week to the University of Hawaii at Hilo a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school with an enrollment of about 2600 By next fall Addison will have completed toe one-semester waiting period meaning he will be eligible to play for Hawaii-Hilo all of next season Addison it seems has had an obsession with Hawaii and had earlier decided in the way that Paul Gauguin saw Tahiti as a rather pleasant release that life in some ways would be incomplete without an island sojourn "There's always been a thing in the back of my mind wish I was in Hawaii I wish I was in Hawaii' Addison said while concluding a holiday visit with his family over the weekend "I wanted to go out of high school but I was only 17 and was a year ahead Maybe if I had gone when I was 17 1 gotten it all out of my system in a couple of years and then come back and been the normal kind of person everybody thinks I should be" Other opinions have hovered about the 6-foot-7 Addison for some time ever since he graduated from Pem-Day in 1979 and in something of a surprise took his 32-point scoring average to the rebuilding University of Colorado Missouri eager to recruit Addison had some well-intentioned alumni write supportive letters to help lure him to Columbia One earnest but misinformed letter writer made the mistake of sending Addison a message that suggested he would make a wonderful addition to Coach Warren Powers Tigers football team LSU made a very strong bid but in the end Addison went off to Boulder Colo which was Sodom rolled into Gomorrah compared with conservative Kansas City He started 12 games in his freshman season averaged 72 points and decided one season In Boulder Colo was quite enough learned a lot there" Addison said "I grew up an awful lot when I was there 1 learned a lot about life and the kind of people that you can and cant depend on things that used ever since then" Pat White Pern-Day's longtime athletic director said Addison "was a boy when he went to See ADDISON Page C-4 Col 1 Orllo WtfMrSptdal to Th Tlmw life after Ugh school has been spent packing and unpack From Russia without love is champion story Being world's best was no safeguard for Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov died together" The Protopopovs could not live without their art why they defected to Switzerland in September 1979 "If I stayed three or four years I would not be alive he said "We were so unhappy We did not see any perspective for the future We understood that nothing would change It was bettor to take our life because our life was not In our bands He never made a conscious choice to commit suicide He knew only that life had become unbearable It had to end A heart attack perhaps "It is impossible to be in this tense SKATERS Page C-4 Col 4 By Jane Lea vy Th Washington Pot WASHINGTON Oleg Protopopov had fled his home once before Long before be and his wife Ludmila Belousova changed the art of figure skating long before they defected to Switzerland he knew what It was to be "between life and death" He was 8 years old His mother was a nurse in blockaded Leningrad during World War II She traded all their possessions for bread "You could buy a Steinway for a chunk of bread ha said When there was no more food and he was "just dean bones" she took himtothehospiUd "I slept between dead people in the he said knew the face of death" He remembers evacuating the besieged city in a caravan of cars filled with women and children They crossed a frozen lake on a road called "The Way of Life" The Germans bombed them "The cars sank below the ice" he said "You cant imagine what I saw and heard as the women and children went together under the ice On the other side of the lake there was no blockade There was porridge and pork and American chocolate He remembers the chocolate "My mother only gave me small pieces" he said Others ate and ate and died from eating too much after not eating at all There are different kinds of death One day in 1978 Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov the Soviet pairs champions realized they were dying drop by drop their eouls being drained They would have to leave the Soviet Union Hm officials did not want them to skate They wanted the Protopopov to retire gracefully as they performed "They wanted me to stand for 80 kopecks an hour near the boards saying Protopopov said And so if they had stayed he said "We would die like Romeo and His wife a small woman with a large smile and long blond hair was stringing sequins together for her husband's costume "They live without each she said why they.