Friday, September 3, 2010

Former UNC president on football: "Great sadness"

In the early 1960s, then-UNC President William Friday had to deal with a point-shaving scandal involving basketball players at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State.

Now long retired, Friday, 90, has been thinking about those bad old days a good bit lately as he follows the scandal enveloping the football program at Carolina.

"For people who care about the university, this is a moment of great sadness," Friday said today. "We've gone 50 years without even the remotest allegation of wrongdoing at Chapel Hill.

Athletic ethics is an issue dear to Friday's heart. For more than 15 years, he co-chaired the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a collection of university leaders that has recommended reforming college sports.

"What we're seeing is a manifestation of what's going on all over college athletics," he said. "It's pretty clear the time has come for the people who care about intercollegiate athletics to put a stop to this."

-- Eric Ferreri (The News & Observer, eferreri@nando.com)

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sad, but true Bill. Surely, you heard of Lawrence Taylor's book, so this should not be brand new news? Clean up time begins @ Chapel Hill.