You'd think that after three years the good people of Bloomington, Ind., would have told the shrill, ill-mannered and, yes, sacrilegious basketball fans among them to hush on up. But they still jammer on about being wronged.
If you don't know the deal, here it is in a nutshell: Sean May is the son of Scott May, member of the pantheon of great Indiana University basketball players. Everybody back home thought Sean, graduate of Bloomington High School North (my alma mater), was for sure going to IU. He didn't. He went to Chapel Hill, where he is getting a fine education and constantly improving his game. He has, in fact, become very good at playing basketball. That's something any good Hoosier would be proud to say of any other Hoosier--unless you can't get over your delusions, which hasn't happened judging from the tenor of continued remarks on the Web applauding the display of poor sportsmanship and abject ignorance on the part of many members of the IU student body and assorted fans during last fall's IU-UNC game.
People were shocked to see Scott May in a UNC sweater during the game. I expect many have turned on him, too, just for supporting his kid.
Being a Hoosier, few things are more upsetting than seeing radical fundamentalism take hold of the state religion. So I'm hoping, prayin', that the snake handlers crawl back in their holes and that the rest of the faithful give this young man a break. In the name of John Wooden, James Dean, Hilliard Gates, Oscar Robertson and Bobby Plump: Put a cork in it. Really.
And for all you folks from North who have turned your back on Sean, think again about what you're doing. You dishonor our school and the traditions of our people.
This young man is doing us proud. But you can't see beyond your own spite to recognize it.
--Kirk M. Ross
Class of '77
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