| | COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The Penn State University baseball team is the latest to register its protest of the Confederate flag flying at the South Carolina Capitol.
Penn State baseball coach Joe Hindelang says his team will not schedule another regular-season game in South Carolina until the flag comes down.
When the Nittany Lions played three games at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., on March 18-19, Penn State players wore red wristbands to protest the flag. But Hindelang said the team would not return until the flag issue is resolved.
Penn State chose the wristband protest "rather than boycott" the games "as was previously done by the U.S. during the summer Olympics of 1980," team officials said in a statement.
"We would like the players, students and administration of Winthrop University as well as the people of the state of South Carolina to understand that our wearing of the red wristbands is not to offend them and for what the Confederate flag originally stood," the statement said. "We understand the original meaning and the historic significance that the flag may have to the Southern states.
"Over time, many negative connotations have been associated with the Confederate flag. In wearing red wristbands, we are expressing our opposition to the racist views that have been associated with the Confederate flag."
This week in South Carolina, the Get in Step march rallied against the flag. The march has been backed by some of the state's most prominent coaches, including South Carolina football coach Lou Holtz. Holtz marched along with South Carolina basketball coach Eddie Fogler and their Clemson counterparts,
football coach Tommy Bowden and basketball coach Larry Shyatt.
"We can't become a great state until we all come together and
utilize everybody's talents and abilities," Holtz said. "It's
hurting us in a lot of different respects, I think."
Numerous sporting events in the state have been affected by the flag this year.
The New York Knicks canceled a pre-playoff training camp in
Charleston, S.C. The Atlantic Coast Conference asked its nine schools to stay
in North Carolina hotels for the league's baseball tournament,
scheduled just over the South Carolina border in Fort Mill, S.C.
Richard Williams, father of tennis star Serena, said his
daughter was not likely to play in the Family Circle Cup in Hilton
Head, S.C. The Southern Conference held its basketball tournaments in
Greenville's Bi-Lo Center, but agreed to look elsewhere next year
should the flag remain above the Statehouse.
And USA Track & Field denounced the flag before the women's
Olympic marathon trials in February, with several competitors wearing
ribbons to protest the flag's presence.
The South Carolina Legislature -- which raised the flag in 1962 to commemorate
the Civil War centennial and in 1995 gave itself the sole power
to lower it -- has not been able to compromise on what to do with the
banner.
"We're trying to do our part to get their attention," said
Fogler, who was one of the first coaches to speak out against the
flag in January. Fogler said it was appropriate that competitive rivals came
together to ask legislators to lower the flag.
"I felt it was important" to take part in the march, Fogler said. "It's just one person
expressing one opinion that the flag needs to come down."
Clemson University President James Baker told ESPN that he supports his coaches and the march without reservation. Bowden said he enjoyed the walk. "The university has come out real strong against the flag," he
said. "We're just here to show that support."
When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People started a tourism boycott of South Carolina in January, it
hoped to affect sports in the state. Some felt that because the
state had so few marquee events, the effects would be minimal.
"They have been wrong about that," said James Gallman,
president of the state NAACP chapter. "We have been very
successful in the sports field."
Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. -- who organized the Get in
Step march -- walked with Holtz, the one-time national championship
winner at Notre Dame, and said, "I had goose bumps." Riley said they discussed Charleston, the Gamecocks' football team and whether the flag should come down.
"He's a thoughtful man," Riley said. "He told me, 'It's
important to do what's right and this is what's right for South
Carolina.'"
Marchers also encountered small gatherings of people
waving Confederate flags who urged motorists to sign petitions to
keep the banner where it is. Those who want the flag lowered say it represents hate and
slavery. Those who want to keep it flying say it stands for
heritage and honors those who died in the Civil War. | |
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