Page:Statement by D. W. Colvard on NCAA participation.pdf/1

 For release at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, March 2, 1963

STATEMENT BY D. W. COLVARD, PRESIDENT OF MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY RELATIVE TO PARTICIPATION IN NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION

This statement is the result of my best effort to do my duty, as I see it, toward the students and faculty of Mississippi State University, its alumni and friends, and the people of Mississippi. Whatever shortcomings it reveals are failures in capacity or judgment. They may not rightly be ascribed to failure in desire to do the right thing.

There is obscurity about the "unwritten law." Some say it is one thing; some, another. And still others aver that it does not exist. Be that as it may, it is certain that there is precedent for the President of Mississippi State University to act in the matter of participation in the NCAA basketball championship competition. Under that precedent, I am acting with the full knowledge of the President, the Executive Secretary, and the Chairman of the Athletics Committee of the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning, State of Mississippi.

The Athletics Committee of Mississippi State University, representing the faculty, alumni, and students, and the Athletic Director have recommended that our basketball team be allowed to compete in the NCAA play-offs. The student senate has passed unanimously a resolution in favor of playing. A petition signed by some 3,000 students, communications from interested alumni and friends of the institution, and resolutions from alumni chapters -- all convey an overwhelming persuasion in favor of participating.

In answer to this manifestation of interest and in the light of my best judgment, it is my conclusion that as responsible and responsive