ACC Basketball: The Story of the Rivalries, Traditions, and Scandals of the First Two Decades of the Atlantic Coast Conference

2. The Founding of the ACC

· 30 · 2 THE FOUNDING OF THE ACC The disclosures of point shaving in college basketball and the violations of academic standards by football coaches at the College of William and Mary were sources of immense concern to presidents of the members of the Southern Conference. Soon after the William and Mary scandal became public knowledge, they held a meeting to consider actions to maintain a healthy balance between academic and athletic goals. The presidents agreed on several measures that they hoped would prevent overemphasis on sports, the most visible and controversial of which was to prohibit participation by Southern Conference football teams in bowl games. This recommendation, which was later formally adopted as conference policy, aroused the opposition of a few members. Led by the University of Maryland ’s Harry C. “Curley” Byrd, the dissenters began to weigh the possibility of abandoning the Southern Conference and establishing a new league. THE FOUNDING OF THE ACC · 31 At the same time, some presidents of Southern Conference schools who strongly supported the ban on playing in bowls increasingly looked with favor on the idea of forming a new conference as a means of asserting better control of athletic programs. Their most prominent spokesman was Gordon Gray, president of the Consolidated University of North Carolina. Between fall 1951 and spring 1953, proposals to organize a new conference gathered momentum. Officials who held differing and sometimes contradictory motives for taking this step operated on separate but parallel tracks. The eventual result was the creation of the Atlantic Coast Conference. “A Man Truly to Be Pitied” In the aftermath of the highly publicized discrepancies between academic integrity and the practices of football coaches at William and Mary, a disinterested but well-informed observer provided his thoughts on the difficulties that faced college presidents in dealing with athletic issues. Charles J. Smith, former president of Roanoke College in Virginia, published an article in the Roanoke Times that described “an undeclared war between college football and college faculties.” One side was made up of “students, alumni, coaches, sportswriters, the smokeshop boys, many boards of trustees, and most powerful of all, the millions of dollars taken in at the gate.” On the other side, “the poor little college professor stands almost alone.” Smith detailed the plight of the professor. “He has spent long years preparing to teach. He has great respect for the dignity of his calling, and he thinks of a college as being primarily interested in intellectual, spiritual , and moral values. He resents its being turned into a football factory.” Smith then explained the dilemma that faced administrators who tried to arbitrate the conflict. The college president was, he wrote, “a man truly to be pitied.” In Smith’s view, the “cards are stacked against him. . . . If he sides with the professors he sacrifices his job. If he lines up with the football crowd he sacrifices his integrity.” Smith had no easy solutions to offer. He suggested that pleas for “de-emphasis” of athletics were unlikely to succeed because, like disarmament agreements, such a process required the cooperation of all parties and “constant inspection.” Nevertheless, he argued that football and faculty interests could achieve a “long peace” if presidents and boards of trustees would take corrective action against the “more glaring evils” of the system. He added that this would call for “integrity and courage” that authorities had “so generally lacked in the past.”1 Smith’s comments on academic-athletic tensions were an apt summary 32 · THE FOUNDING OF THE ACC of the predicament that confronted Southern Conference presidents in the fall of 1951. They sought ways to avoid overemphasis on winning and the attendant risks of suffering the problems that had afflicted William and Mary. At the same time, they did not want to surrender the benefits of their athletic programs. The members of the Southern Conference at that time were: The Citadel (Charleston, South Carolina), Clemson, Davidson College (Davidson, North Carolina), Duke, Furman University (Greenville , South Carolina), George Washington University (Washington, D.C.), Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, the University of Richmond (Richmond, Virginia), South Carolina, Virginia Military Institute (Lexington,Virginia),Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Blacksburg,Virginia), Wake Forest, Washington and Lee University (Lexington, Virginia), the University of West Virginia (Morgantown,West Virginia), and William and Mary. The Consolidated University of North Carolina The administrator who took the initiative in spurring the conference’s efforts to control but not cripple athletic...