From: Colorado Springs Gazetteby Kate Crandall
(left) Grand Wizar...er...I mean CC Hockey Captain Scott Thauwald shown here without makeup
The recent suspension of four Colorado College hockey players was a penalty for wearing blackface and costumes of characters in a TV show about a black family.
The players were senior captain Scott Thauwald, sophomores Andreas Vlassopoulos and Brian Connelly, and freshman Brett Wysopal.
The punishment included two weeks without hockey team activities and disciplinary probation for the rest of the school year. The players were required to meet with members of the local branches of the NAACP and the Urban League, and participate in a campus forum at the school’s multicultural residence, Glass House, with members of the Black Student Union.
The four must take an extra course on “diverse cultures,” and the entire team will meet with speakers and members of the school’s Diversity Task Force.
The incident occurred at the team’s annual preseason golf outing on Sept. 8 at Valley Hi Golf Course.
The players divided themselves into groups and, in conjunction with this year’s theme of TV shows, picked a show to represent. Groups chose “Baywatch,” “Entourage,” “WWE,” “Scrubs” and “The Office.” The four players in question chose “Family Matters” and wore wigs and makeup.
“Colorado College must be a diverse, respectful community, where we value all persons and seek to learn from their diverse experiences and perspectives,” CC President Richard Celeste said in a statement. “Several weeks ago, an incident in which students engaged in inappropriate and offensive behavior violated this core value. The college took this situation very seriously and acted as quickly as possible to take substantial disciplinary action and create opportunities for dialogue.”
Celeste did not name the players, but he said those involved acknowledged their error and joined campus groups in discussing diversity.
“The intent was to have good costumes,” Thauwald said. “We realize now, even though there was no racial intent, that what we did was wrong. We’ve all learned a lot through the last couple of weeks, and we’ve apologized to the school and the people we directly affected, and I feel like a lot of the students were pretty welcoming to our apology. We made a mistake.”
The others expressed similar sentiments:
- Connelly: “We know what we did hurt people. We want to become leaders on campus.”
- Vlassopoulos: “We were hurt not just for the fact that people were calling us racist, but we did cause a lot of pain for people. . . . That was tough realizing that you affected in a bad way so many people you didn’t even know.”
- Wysopal: “The biggest thing was that it hurt that they thought we were lying about our apology. It came from the heart. There was no racist intent involved. We made a mistake and we’re paying for it. But we want to stay involved.”
Coach Scott Owens declined to comment.
In 2002, CC was embroiled in controversy when the student newspaper, Catalyst, published an April Fool’s Day issue that offended members of the black community. Last week, the Catalyst reported the episode with hockey players and a separate, unconfirmed rumor about two students attending an on-campus party in blackface.
On Oct. 2, the players met for dinner with Rosemary Harris and Frank Lytle of the Colorado Springs branch of the NAACP, Thomas Bennett of the Colorado Springs Black Leadership Forum, CC’s vice president of student life Mike Edmonds and CC’s minority student life director Rochelle Mason. Harris, the branch president, said the players received a brief history of blackface, which dates to the early 1800s when white actors in minstrel shows would use burnt cork to darken their skin and would mock the mannerisms, speech patterns and other aspects of black culture.
“It was a constructive experience because I thought they were open,” Harris said. “It was people coming together around the table to do what we so often don’t do, which is talk honestly about race in this country. . . . I walked away feeling it wasn’t going to be swept under the rug, and I felt these students fully expected that it would not be swept under any rug.”
Vanessa Roberts, co-chair of CC’s Black Student Union, said the players’ apology in front of 50 to 60 students at Glass House on Oct. 3 was a step.
“Being able to put it within a context was helpful in terms of understanding it or finding a beginning ground from which to understand and process it,” Roberts said.
The four players and teammates Bill Sweatt, Tyler O’Brien and Eric Walsky also attended a Unity Rally at Worner Student Center on Oct. 10 on their own accord, Thauwald said.
“It was affirming to see them there,” Roberts said. “I know that personally my general concern was that now that they’ve fulfilled the requirements of their punishment that’ll be it. Now, I’m waiting to see what happens next from their side.”
Harris said she expects the players to attend the NAACP’s Freedom Fund Dinner on Saturday at 7 p.m., the same time as CC’s game against Minnesota.
“The president of the NAACP invited us,” Thauwald said. “Then, we received an e-mail from Rochelle Mason. That was about a week ago. We all responded back saying we’re not going to be able to attend, but we would be interested in future things.”
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