December 15, 2009--"Young Lady, We've Got A Problem"
“Young lady, if you don’t stop doing that, we’ve got a problem.”
The “that” that he is referring to was something a member of the University of Tennessee’s Orange Pride group was doing. The Pride are female undergraduates who assist the Volunteer’s basketball and football coaches recruit top high school athletic prospects.
Keith Easterwood was visiting the campus with his son last year, a high school football star, and what he wanted the young lady to stop doing was rubbing her breasts against him and his son.
This was not an aberration. It appears that the University of Tennessee arranges for this kind of extra-curricular recruitment as the normal way of doing business. In fact, for any college or university football or basketball factory to remain competitive they need to organize their own versions of the Orange Pride girls.
Mr. Easterwood said, “I’ve been up there five times [he’s a coach and has brought players other than his son to campus] and my observation is that this is a very organized operation. These girls have obviously been groomed. There’s a lot of eye contact and touching.”
If you click on the linked New York Times article you can see a couple of the Pride recruiting assistants in action—at a high school football game that they attended and did their thing. In this instance, enticing two potential recruits to pose with them on the sidelines where you can see them holding a sign declaring that the two big hulks “have our hearts.”
The practice was first instituted in the 1960s by Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama. His Bear's Angels were so well known that in their own way they became as famous as the players on the Crimson Tide’s teams. The groups are usually created and organized by school officials and are in most cases attached to the school’s admissions office.
Since coaches can't spend more than a few minutes with any individual recruit and his parents when they come for their NCAA-permitted 48-hour campus visits, it's up to the hostess to give tours, answer questions, and—in the evening when the parents go back to their own hotels—provide entertainment.
For decades this practice of entertaining recruits existed officially unnoticed and ignored, but two incidents eight years ago brought groups such as the Orange Pride into view. In late 2001, a female student at the University of Colorado claimed she was raped by football players and football recruits at a party she was hosting on their behalf. Then in 2003, a campus newspaper's investigation into Arizona State's all-female recruiting group revealed that while serving as hostesses members routinely supplied underage recruits with wild parties, alcohol, and occasionally sex.
The groups are given cute, often alliterative names such as the University of Miami’s Hurricane Honeys, Clemson’s Bengal Babes, Oklahoma State’s Cowboy Coeds, and Wake Forest’s Deacon Darlings.
Under increasing scrutiny, school officials assert that hostesses are not given orders about what to do after hours but admit they are not told what not to do; though at some colleges, hostesses speaking off the record have claimed that in order to be selected they had to agree to engage in various sexual practices with the high school kids coaches wanted on their teams.
Sports Illustrated reported that one potential member of the University of Oklahoma’s hostess corps, Crimson-n-Cream, when she was interviewed for the squad, was asked what she would do if a recruit wanted to go to her room. Perkily, she replied, “I’d call all my friends and make sure he had a good time.”
I assume this Lady Sooner got the assignment.
The “that” that he is referring to was something a member of the University of Tennessee’s Orange Pride group was doing. The Pride are female undergraduates who assist the Volunteer’s basketball and football coaches recruit top high school athletic prospects.
Keith Easterwood was visiting the campus with his son last year, a high school football star, and what he wanted the young lady to stop doing was rubbing her breasts against him and his son.
This was not an aberration. It appears that the University of Tennessee arranges for this kind of extra-curricular recruitment as the normal way of doing business. In fact, for any college or university football or basketball factory to remain competitive they need to organize their own versions of the Orange Pride girls.
Mr. Easterwood said, “I’ve been up there five times [he’s a coach and has brought players other than his son to campus] and my observation is that this is a very organized operation. These girls have obviously been groomed. There’s a lot of eye contact and touching.”
If you click on the linked New York Times article you can see a couple of the Pride recruiting assistants in action—at a high school football game that they attended and did their thing. In this instance, enticing two potential recruits to pose with them on the sidelines where you can see them holding a sign declaring that the two big hulks “have our hearts.”
The practice was first instituted in the 1960s by Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama. His Bear's Angels were so well known that in their own way they became as famous as the players on the Crimson Tide’s teams. The groups are usually created and organized by school officials and are in most cases attached to the school’s admissions office.
Since coaches can't spend more than a few minutes with any individual recruit and his parents when they come for their NCAA-permitted 48-hour campus visits, it's up to the hostess to give tours, answer questions, and—in the evening when the parents go back to their own hotels—provide entertainment.
For decades this practice of entertaining recruits existed officially unnoticed and ignored, but two incidents eight years ago brought groups such as the Orange Pride into view. In late 2001, a female student at the University of Colorado claimed she was raped by football players and football recruits at a party she was hosting on their behalf. Then in 2003, a campus newspaper's investigation into Arizona State's all-female recruiting group revealed that while serving as hostesses members routinely supplied underage recruits with wild parties, alcohol, and occasionally sex.
The groups are given cute, often alliterative names such as the University of Miami’s Hurricane Honeys, Clemson’s Bengal Babes, Oklahoma State’s Cowboy Coeds, and Wake Forest’s Deacon Darlings.
Under increasing scrutiny, school officials assert that hostesses are not given orders about what to do after hours but admit they are not told what not to do; though at some colleges, hostesses speaking off the record have claimed that in order to be selected they had to agree to engage in various sexual practices with the high school kids coaches wanted on their teams.
Sports Illustrated reported that one potential member of the University of Oklahoma’s hostess corps, Crimson-n-Cream, when she was interviewed for the squad, was asked what she would do if a recruit wanted to go to her room. Perkily, she replied, “I’d call all my friends and make sure he had a good time.”
I assume this Lady Sooner got the assignment.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
2:37 AM
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