Staff wins 50-48 in BAS-sponsored event

Last year, Pamela Smoot, a professor in the Black American Studies program, decided she was going to take on her students.

She discussed her plans for the challenge regularly, even making light of it with those she planned to take on. But when she attempted to recruit other faculty and staff to join her in her crusade, their reaction was different from her own.

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“All they did was laugh,” Smoot said.

The proposal, which resulted in an air ball for the professor, was a basketball game between black faculty and staff and the Black Affairs Council, a student organization.

The two teams met to compete in a basketball game Wednesday evening in Pulliam Gym. More than 150 people attended the game, which was sponsored and with proceeds going to the Black American Studies program.

“The purpose of this evening is to let African Americans in particular know that there are more African Americans than just the ones that they already know,” said Smoot, who is also a historian. “It also gives the faculty who participate a chance to meet other African American faculty and staff.”

After waiting some time to see the challenge happen, Smoot admitted she had other goals aside from unity in mind.

“I just want to show the team of students they will not run over us the way they think they will.”

The students, although up for the challenge, were not as motivated as the faculty and staff team.

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Kevin Winstead, a member of the student team and president of the council, admitted the team did not practice regularly. He said the members had not had too many organized practices as a team and, in fact, a few moments before the game, they were asking audience members to complete their roster.

“I was a cheerleader in high school, I don’t play ball,” Tamika Finch-Hall explained to George Ploss, who attempted to recruit her shortly before the game.

“Go team,” Finch-Hall yelled as he walked back to the court in vain. Finch-Hall admitted afterward that she was cheering for the opposite team.

The faculty and staff were popular among the student attendants. Some spectators even took the time to join the organized cheerleading team, which was led by Anna Jackson, a professor in the English department.

Along with other University employees, Jackson and fellow cheerleaders made a banner that the faculty and staff team charged through at the beginning of the game.

Despite the spirit of the faculty and staff team and some difficulty with even recruiting players, Winstead said he was not worried.

“I would like to think they’ll be good for about the first three quarters,” said Winstead, a sophomore studying marketing from Dalton. “Then their hips are going to start hurting, then their baby toe is going to be swollen and their going to start complaining about their baby toe like their always doing in class.”

The coach of the student team joined in the teasing, asking fans in the audience if anyone had “oxygen masks,” for the opposite team. The team found their efforts especially humorous after scoring the first three baskets and nine points in the game.

The student team had a 20-5 lead after the first quarter, a lead that held up until the fourth quarter. At this time, Smoot said her team received what she described as a “sudden surge.”

In the end, the faculty and staff team, whose members were slightly older, did not need “chest compression,” or “oxygen tasks” as some suggested. They instead ended up having to nurse their opponents, tending to the wounds of the student team, who lost to the faculty and staff 50-48.