One year ago, the Ball State University athletics department had a different working atmosphere.
Ronny Thompson headed the basketball team, and despite a 9-22 record, everything was suitable.
But it all changed June 24, 2007, when Thompson found seven note cards, each containing three words, one of them being a racial slur.
Along with the notes, a copy of a June 14 article in The Ball State Daily News was posted on the wall, which explained NCAA regulations Thompson and his staff were being accused of violating.
A fiasco transpired. First, athletics director Tom Collins said Thompson would stay, and then Thompson left. And it all happened under heavy scrutiny from the national media.
Those seven notes and three words led the university to buyout Thompson for $200,000 and prompted an external study to show the department for what it was: a place that harbored "small" and "isolated" incidents of racism.
Collins couldn't just sit on his hands and smile; he had to act. While working hard to restore credibility to his department, Collins went a long way to turn a drastic negative into a positive.
Collins realigned the athletics department, which has weathered the media scorn and now faces fewer hurdles it can trip on. The department can relax because Billy Taylor stepped in to inject order into the men's basketball program, football coach Brady Hoke is positioned to lead his team to another bowl game and the women's basketball coaching situation is finally resolved.
Collins can still improve the department further though.
Perhaps if he hired more minority coaches, there would be an even more diverse environment in his department. Currently, 16 of Ball State's 18 head coaches are white, with Taylor and first-year soccer coach Michael Lovett the only two current black coaches hired by the administration.
On a positive note, the athletics department now has two black coaches instead of one. It's not much of an improvement toward diversity, but it's slight progress.
Collins also hired associate athletics director Karin Lee, a black woman, about two months after the department announced the findings of the racist letters.
About five months after she was hired, Lee received the responsibility of overseeing 13 athletic programs, a vast increase in her role within the department.
The work that was done in the past year has gone a long way toward quieting critics that called the program a racist environment a year ago.
"Tom had a vision and put a plan into place, and then we followed it up with hard work," Lee said. "We knew it would probably take a year, and it has, but we work everyday to make sure Ball State athletics is the best it can be."
And it all started with seven note cards and three words.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
