Proposition 48

And and the fact that, you know.

I was a Proposition 48 kid, right, because I didn't make high enough of my SAT to play my freshman year at South Carolina.

So I had to make a choice either to go to junior college or prep school or, you know, just go sit out and prove that I could do the academic work.

And that's what I chose.

And he was very much socially aware that he was not afraid to take strong stands on issues like racial issues.

Proposition 48, which was a controversial rule that was put in by the NCAA in the 1980s.

And John Thompson and many others believe that there was a racial component involved.

I had had, you know, ACT scores and core classes and players were ineligible.

We've got to meet somewhere in the middle.

Yes, there's got to be accountability, but you can't blame the kids for the opportunities that they have not had.

And there was a game, 1988, 1989, where John Thompson walks off the floor in protest of Proposition 48.

So this was a guy that was really willing to make a stand.

His teams had some incredibly dynamic offensive players, some of the best offensive players Indiana's ever fielded.

Obviously, Antoine Randall-El, who was a Prop 48, which for those who are too young to know what Prop 48 is, he was basically ineligible as a freshman, to play started as a sophomore quarterback and was only at Indiana because Indiana was I think the only power conference school that said he could play quarterback everybody else thought he was too small and he ended up being one of the greatest two-way quarterbacks or dual threat quarterbacks in the history of the game Leveron Williams, who was a really exciting running back.

Jeremy Johnson, who was a really exciting fullback.

But they never could put a coherent defensive effort out on the field.

Yes, you're absolutely right.

And as a young high school guy, and when I was in high school, NCAA had a rule called Proposition 48.

You could not play as a freshman if your SAT wasn't at a certain score.

But you could go Division II and play.

Judd, "Don't you even think about going to Verbum Dei.

I don't wanna hear nothing from you on this one." [laughs] So, so, uh, we get involved, and now he's a Prop 48.

So, so but he was a ve- very good player.

And so again, on this high school team, he played center.

And so he does that in two games, and I tell Tommy Connor, "Tommy, now, okay, I'm gonna say this to you, but he- he's Stockton-esque.

Tommy, I'm telling you.

I mean, he sees easy." I remember giving Tommy that call, and he said, "Oh, okay, okay." And then he comes out as a Prop 48.

We can't do anything with him or anything like that.