We’ve invited Ralph Turner, a McMurry alumnus and supporter of our sites, to discuss the McMurry Indians mascot situation. His post appears below.

I want to thank you for the opportunity to explain the McMurry issue of the mascot appeal. Let me summarize many of the points that I have posted in previous discussions about McMurry. These thoughts are mine, and do not necessarily reflect those of the University.

As many of you know, our founding President, Dr. James Winford Hunt, the son of a physician, was born on the Kaw Reservation in what is now the state of Oklahoma. That was his home for 6 years. Out of respect for the people of his childhood, he gave McMurry its nickname, and Dr Hunt inculcated that respect into the culture of the school. The Indian mascot and the educational opportunities provided by that mascot have served as a catalyst for evaluating diversity and inclusion as part of the core values of the institution.

In my opinion, the most significant event in understanding that culture is Tipi Village. (Ed. note, photo at right.) McMurry began the Homecoming tradition of Tipi Village in 1951 and was featured in Life magazine that year. Tipi Village involves the students from campus organizations, members of the freshman class, and the men’s and women’s social clubs erecting authentic replica tipis of the tribes of the Plains Indians and, on occasion, the dwellings of other Native American tribes. Authoritative sources on the tipis are consulted for accuracy, and these tipis are then judged by Native American experts. The value of each tipi may exceed $8,000 to $10,000 for leather ones. Student docents conduct the tours for the 3,000-5,000 elementary school children who come from as far as 85 miles away to see this example of living history.

For Tipi Village, my social club’s adopted tribe is the Oglala Sioux. We use authoritative texts, such as The Indian Tipi by Reginald and Gladys Laupin and Oglala Religion by William K Powers as source material. About twenty years ago, Don Little Bear, an Oglala Chief from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, bequeathed to our social club his Ceremonial Regalia for our use at Tipi Village. The Regalia, including an unborn calf suede vest, wampum and Eagle feather headdress, is as spectacular as it is priceless. We only exhibit it once a year, at Homecoming.

The sole statue on the University commons, entitled Spirit Wind, is a native American as he looks over the campus, an eagle sitting on his shoulder. Courses on Native American history, especially the Plains Indians, are taught by the History Department by a professor with Native American heritage. The McMurry history faculty has contributed to the Native American section in the local museum, Frontier Texas!

A significant percentage of the “Anglos” in this part of the US have fractions of Native American blood from the intermarrying that occurred on the frontier with the Southern agricultural tribes and with those tribes that were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). (I am 1/32nd Choctaw from my maternal side when they lived in Mississippi.) McMurry also has approximately 10% of its student body declaring itself Hispanic. The intermarrying between descendants from Spain and Native American tribes was prevalent in the American southwest. Likewise, it was not uncommon for slaves of African descent to escape into the adjacent southern Native American tribes where they could start new lives. The university has chosen to confront this diversity as a learning experience. This exposure to other cultures has brought new friendships and greater understand of the Native American Cultures.

McMurry has complied with the NCAA’s requests for self-examination on the Indian mascot name and has worked to rid itself of hostile and abusive connotations. The recent response by the NCAA to our appeal no longer mentions “hostile and abusive.” It refers to “creat[ing] an environment over which an institution may not have full control.” The closest thing to a hostile environment at a McMurry sporting event is due to poor officiating. In my opinion, the NCAA’s standard of a “controlled environment” relating to endeavors in higher education, whether illegal gambling, hazing, sexual assault, underaged drinking, etc., is daunting in ways too numerous to consider in this blog.

I anticipate that the University will appeal to exhaust all avenues on behalf of the McMurry community. Should McMurry’s appeal fail before the NCAA Executive Committee next month, then the University will need to struggle with the question of a new mascot, a question that may rend the university community asunder.

This blog post is now closed. New discussion should take place on the follow-up post.

A couple of years ago about this time there was speculation flying as to whether Rice was going to move up from Division I to Division III.

This year, it’s Birmingham-Southern. Described as the smallest school in Division I by columnist Ray Melick of The Birmingham (Ala.) News, the school is said to be looking at Division III and is expected to decide by the end of May.

To Birmingham-Southern, we say: Welcome. Division III is a great place to be. We hope you choose to become part of the biggest subdivision in collegiate athletics, where the true amateur athlete calls home, where an institution can truly feel good about its mission.

With 1,381 full-time undergraduates, the private liberal arts college fits the profile of Division III nicely. And Division III is slowly gaining ground in the Southeast, Birmingham-Southern will not be off on an island.

And it would save almost $3.5 million in athletics aid alone, according to the column.

Of course, Rice flirted with Division III a couple of springs ago and ended up scaring up enough cash with all the publicity to remain in Division I, with I-A football. But Rice is more than twice as big as Birmingham-Southern.

According to the Associated Press, the NCAA’s Basketball Rules Committees is sending a proposal to the playing rules oversight panel regarding the good-ol’ flying-out-of-bounds timeout rule.

“With players holding the ball with two hands, diving out of bounds, there’s some risk of injury,” Larry Keating, the rules committee chair, told the AP. “The NBA had that problem four years ago and dealt with it. I just think it was something that everybody wanted to see and we were willing to do it.”

Another proposal could force Division III schools (oh, and Division II, too) to add clocks that display tenths of a second and shot clocks mounted above backboards by 2010. Will this happen? It might. Other proposals aimed at the NCAA as a whole have been struck down on the basis that they have been inconsiderate of anyone outside of Division I, but this seems like a reasonable request and timeframe.

According to an NCAA news summary, 25 Division III schools’ financial aid awards were found not acceptable and were forwarded to the NCAA’s enforcement staff. In these schools, the aid to student-athletes exceeded the aid awarded to the general student body by at least 4%, when comparing students with similar need.

The original list of schools out of the norm was 60, about 14% of Division III. Some details of the various levels of review were included in the NCAA’s piece.

That wasn’t the committee dealings the NCAA chose to emphasize, but it was what leaped off the page at me. The other big news is a proposal to put in year-round drug testing in Division III. One of the justifications was that a 2005 NCAA study put Division III drug usage at or above levels of usage in Division I. That may be true. It might also be the case that Division III student-athletes were simply more truthful in filling out the survey, since there are fewer consequences at the non-scholarship level. The testing proposal is for a two-year pilot program.

There was a list of things that the Management Council urged the Presidents Council and Executive Committee Working Group to consider:

·Further limitation on the provisional class size (one or two per year).
Not a problem. Division III is going to be too large to manage at some point.

·Tightening the standards applied to exploratory and provisional members to begin the process in lieu of the lottery system.
What a concept. Almost like I posted last August.

·Long-term divisional structure in the NCAA.
Does this sound like the late ’90s movement to subdivide Division III? Ugh.

·Optimal size of Division III based on resource allocation.
Optimal size of Division III is pretty darn close to where we are now.

·More aggressive screening of active members consistent with the Division III philosophy, membership and legislative requirements.
Sounds like more enforcement.

·Raising membership dues, if necessary, to address additional Division III resources, services and long-term membership options.
Seems reasonable.

·Changing demographics in the United States in relation to higher education.
Anyone working in higher education please chime in on this one.

Lincoln is leaving Division III.

If all goes according to plan, the Lions will be in the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (and playing football, by the way), in 2010-11. Although the NCAA may consider Lincoln as a Division III member during part of the reclassification process, we will not consider Lincoln a Division III member from the moment they have a scholarship athlete.

Men’s basketball coach Garfield Yuille hinted at this in an interview on Hoopsville (full audio clip) at the end of January, so it isn’t much of a surprise. But the volume of material on Lincoln’s Web site begs the question:

What happens if the CIAA doesn’t take Lincoln?

This is how university president Ivory V. Nelson termed it in his letter to the university community of Tuesday afternoon, April 11:

If invited to join, we will begin the intercollegiate athletic transition process via the NCAA. We will not petition for Division II status until we have a definitive decision from the CIAA.

Let’s hope that works out. We know Lincoln has made overtures to the CIAA before, only to be told it needed to add football as well. But Lincoln fits very well in that league.

So Lincoln: Enjoy your 36 football scholarships and your 10 basketball scholarships. I would say thanks for the memories, but shoot, Lincoln was only on the radar for about a year and a half of the nine years we’ve been running the site. The rest of the time, getting info was like pulling teeth. Memories are hard to come by.

The move would leave Division III with just two historically black colleges: Fisk and Rust.

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