Ugly Incident Turned Into a Positive for Jefferson

Like a lot of big men, Dartmouth football player Bobby Jefferson fancied himself a guard in a power forward's body even as an all-conference basketball player in high school. These days a member of the Big Green women's basketball practice squad, Jefferson spent some time with Harvard grad Jeremy Lin before an Atlanta Hawks game in early January. But the meeting between the two Ivy Leaguers was anything but a laughing matter.

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While the Dartmouth men's basketball team was going head-to-head with Yale in a key Ivy League game earlier this winter a small but boisterous Dartmouth student section was on its collective feet cheering the home team and razzing the visitors, something that happens on high school and college campuses all across the country.

Hard to miss in the middle of the throng was 6-foot-2, 280 pound Bobby Jefferson II, coming off his freshman season as a defensive lineman on the Dartmouth football team.

The cheering at Leede never crossed the line but if it did the student section would have had to answer to Jefferson well before any Dartmouth administrators could get involved. That's because Jefferson knows only too well the difference between enthusiastic cheering and reprehensible behavior under the guise of school spirit.

It was a year ago this month that Jefferson and St. Xavier High School basketball teammate Nathan Stockman led their team onto the floor at Greater Catholic League rival Elder High School. The senior power forward and junior guard, good buddies on and off the court, had helped St. X end a five-year drought between conference wins on the strength of an overtime buzzer beater against Elder on their home floor two weeks earlier.

The rematch would be played in front of an amped-up crowd at Elder and a hint of the ugliness to come occurred while the teams were queued up to run on the floor even before the game started.

Thoughtful and deliberate, Jefferson explained what happened: "From behind me I heard someone say, 'Get out of the way.' I said, 'For what?' and when I turned around it was a police officer.

"He stepped up to me so that we were chest-to-chest and I laughed a bit thinking, 'This can't be real.' I know my teammates were thinking the same thing. The next thing I knew he slapped the ball out of my hand and said, 'Maybe you should learn a little bit of respect. But I know it's hard for you.' "

"When that kind of stuff happened before the game," Jefferson added, "everything that happened throughout the game wasn't too much of a surprise."

What happened was a series of racist chants directed both at Jefferson, the only black player in uniform for St. Xavier that Friday night, and at Stockman, who is Asian-American.

While there had been some rude comments at a St. X game against another opponent earlier in the season, Jefferson was taken aback by what was being shouted at the pair on this Friday night. "Most of what you hear from a student section in high school is good fun with nothing racial or anything like that," he said. "I don't know if there was any school administration there but certainly the coaches, parents and grandparents that were there weren't telling them to stop because it just kept going on.

"Our student section tried to get it to stop, chanting back at them, 'That is racist.' I appreciate our student section for trying to get it to stop. They were in position to do something and they did."

The offensive behavior in the Elder student section, audible on a video that would soon be taken down from the Internet, led to a series of stories in the Cincinnati Enquirer as well as reports on local television. The Elder principal issued an apology, the school had an assembly to talk through what happened, a student delegation from Elder visited St. X for a lunch talk, and the police officer who confronted Jefferson was reprimanded.

When P.F. Chang's learned that Stockman intended to make a statement by wearing the restaurant's name on his sneakers for the rest of the season as a result of it being chanted at him during the game, representatives of the chain contacted Lin, whose foundation's mission is "to love and serve children and youth, by providing hope, empowerment and leadership development."

Which is how Jefferson, Stockman and their families found themselves in Atlanta for a dinner meeting with Lin at a local P.F. Chang's, and at the Hawks-Bucks game the next day. Although heavy traffic cost Jefferson a chance to meet Lin at the restaurant he did have a chance to tease him about Dartmouth's win over Harvard just the night before during warmups before his first NBA regular season game.

"That was cool," Jefferson said with a grin. "I talked a little bit of smack. He was like, 'Yeah, you guys got us last night.'

"We had a chance to get some pictures and meet a lot of the Hawks players. It was a really cool experience."

Jefferson and Stockman left Atlanta with a new NBA player to cheer for, signed Lin jerseys, Harden Vol. 3 basketball shoes — Stockman's were personalized with a P.F. Chang's logo by noted "sneaker artist" Kickstradomis — and an appreciation for those who willing to stand up to bullying of any sort.

"It's nice to know that there are people out there who care about these type of thing and are willing to celebrate and help others when they go through something like this, whether it be racial, sexual, gender bias, any of that," said Jefferson. "Sports is one place where we can all come together.

"I have no ill will in my heart towards Elder. I understand things happen, but at the same time things like that shouldn't happen."

Back in Hanover after his adventure in Atlanta, the Dartmouth freshman returned to a student section that was cheering and yes, occasionally heckling the visitors, but doing it without malice.

"I do find myself listening sometimes," he admitted, "but the guys cheering are great guys. They aren't saying anything they shouldn't.

"If they ever did I wouldn't have a problem saying, 'Hey, back off a little bit,' or, 'That's not something we should be saying,' But I haven't had that problem."

NOTES
Jefferson's trip was approved by the NCAA … although he just missed seeing Lin at P.F. Chang's, he said with a grin that he didn't get cheated at the eatery. He figures he's added 20-to-25 pounds of muscle after reporting last fall at 260 … Jefferson is bullish on his position and the team heading into spring ball. "I got to learn a lot from guys like Rocco Di Leo, Jackson Perry and David Chalmers this year," he said. "They did a really good job of explaining things and if you still didn't understand, explaining it more. You could tell they really want guys to succeed, whether we're on the scout team or they were the first- or second-team. They pushed you to make sure that you were the best you could be. I feel good about the team. We've got a lot returning. Obviously, we will be missing our seniors from last year, but we've got good guys coming back, so I feel like we will be pretty competitive."

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