Penn State baseball team protests Confederate flag

Monday, March 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) -- Penn State's baseball team will not play another regular season game in South Carolina while the Confederate flag flies over the Statehouse, its players and coaches say.

The Nittany Lions wore red armbands in both their games against Winthrop over the weekend to protest the flag. Penn State won Saturday's game, 4-3, and lost Sunday, 9-8.

The team, which has no more games scheduled in South Carolina this season, said it would only return to the state if a postseason game were scheduled here.

"This isn't about the North and the South," George Everly, a Penn State freshman outfielder, who is black, said. "It has nothing to do with the university or the players. It is a statement against racism."

The Confederate flag has flown atop the South Carolina Capitol since the early 1960s when it was raised to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

Several attempts since then to have it removed have failed, but the issue was thrust into the national spotlight this year when Republican presidential candidates were asked about their views on the flag when they campaigned in the state.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which says the flag is a symbol of slavery, has started an economic boycott of the state.

Flag supporters say it represents Southern heritage and honors Civil War dead.

South Carolina's Confederate flag dispute has been an issue at Penn State, coach Joe Hindelang said.

Some players asked what they should do, so the team researched the subject, discussed it in depth, then decided that a two-thirds vote would decide their course, he said.

Four coaches and 38 players -- including two black and one Hispanic -- cast silent ballots, and the decision was overwhelmingly in favor of armbands and discontinuation of regular season games in South Carolina, Hindelang said.

"There are a lot of groups meeting on campus, and the feeling on the flag is it's offensive to a lot of people, and not just minorities," he said.