Three Black former football players can pursue their civil rights suit accusing a northern California community college of racial discrimination, verbal abuse and harassment, a federal judge has ruled.
Dr. Ronald Taylor, the president of Feather River College, said he cannot comment on the litigation but that it is “probably a safe assumption” that the college will deny all the allegations in the next stage of the case.
And in court papers, the college blamed the suit on the plaintiffs’ “disappointment at not making the team for their sophomore year” and “not believing that any other players could possibly be better than them.”
In his decision, U.S. District Judge John Mendez rejected a request by the Feather River Community College District, its director of athletic operations, head coach and an assistant coach to dismiss the case without trial.
The suit alleges that Feather River College recruited South Carolina residents Emory Boyd Jr., Quinton Hancock and Nicholas Page to play for its Golden Eagles with an understanding that the team’s coaching staff would help them get athletic scholarships at four-year institutions after completing their associate’s degrees. The students paid out-of-state tuition.
But after they arrived at the campus in the small, predominantly White community of Quincy, they and other African-American athletes encountered “racially hostile conduct,” the suit claims. That conduct allegedly included coaches’ use of derogatory names, unfair criticism and attempts to provoke White players to get into fights with their Black teammates.
