Okay, you’re going to think I am really old. Well, maybe I am! I’m going to tell you readers about a story I heard in my youth. It’s about the TAR-BABY. The TAR-BABY is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1880. It is about a doll made of tar and turpentine used by the villainous Br’er Fox to entrap Br’er Rabbit. The more that Br’er Rabbit fights the TAR-BABY, the more entangled he becomes. All of that brings us to the Tar Heels of North Carolina. The more they fight the NCAA, the more entangled they become.
There is an old adage that “the wheels of justice grind slowly.” Well, the wheels of justice at the NCAA grind even slower. So slow that it is hard to detect movement sometimes. Never in history has there been an NCAA investigation like the one that is (still) ongoing at the University of North Carolina. Now, six years after the initial investigation began, it appears that the school will finally have its day in NCAA court on August 14th.
The basic premise of the investigation is this: During a period that might have been as long as 18 years, numerous Carolina athletes were involved in sham classes in the African and Afro-American studies department. From the beginning UNC officials have stonewalled the investigation and have offered the defense of “ the classes were taken by more than just athletes so that should be none of the NCAA’s business!”
Keep in mind that North Carolina is one of the “Blue Bloods” of NCAA membership. All of those national titles in basketball and an image that they are a “cut above” many other schools. Schools that have yet to earn that lofty status, that the Tar Heel faithful indulge in with their thinking .
The NCAA has put itself in a corner they really wish they weren’t in. For years they have meted out punishments much stronger to lesser known institutions for even less egregious infractions. If they don’t rain fire and brimstone down on Chapel Hill there’s going to be hell to pay from the likes of Louisville, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Oklahoma, Southern Methodist and numerous other lesser known schools that were smacked with severe penalties for committing crimes much smaller than what has gone on at North Carolina.
Last Spring, U. of Maryland President Wallace Loh said what happened at UNC is “abysmal and UNC should get the death penalty!” That, of course, brought a quick retort from UNC basketball coach, Roy Williams, who spit out that “Loh is a double idiot.”
“Ol Roy” wasn’t at UNC for all of the years for these alleged infractions BUT he has been there through some of them and, by now, should be quite informed of what transpired BEFORE he got there and what has gone on WHILE he was there!
Nobody is a criminal UNTIL they get caught. Louisville got caught this past year. It cost them dearly, including a national championship in basketball that must be returned. The Tar Heels have gotten into a fight with the TAR BABY. How many national championships will it cost them?
Carolina Blue? Yeah. They’re in a blue, blue mood. As “Ol Roy” would say: “Aw shucks. Dadgummit!”
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
