Four Colorado College hockey players have served 14-day suspensions for appearing in blackface at a golf outing.
The players dressed up like the characters in the former television sitcom “Family Matters,” which is about a middle-class black family living in Chicago.
According to The Gazette of Colorado Springs, all CC players wore costumes to the event, divided into groups and dressed like actors in TV shows such as “Baywatch,” “Entourage” and “The Office.”
Senior and team captain Scott Thauwald, sophomores Andreas Vlassopoulos and Brian Connelly and freshman Brett Wysopal had no contact with the team for two weeks after donning wigs and makeup to the team’s Sept. 8 outing.
The four also were put on probation the rest of the school year and required to meet with Colorado Springs minority leaders and take an extra course on diverse cultures.
Rosemary Harris, president of the Colorado Springs branch of the NAACP, met with the players Oct. 2, along with other school and city minority leaders.
“I think it’s a very serious incident, knowing as I do the history of blackface performance, and knowing that it was developed as a way to keep African-American performers off the stage,” Harris said. “And two, to capitalize on the tenor of the times, which was to depict black people in very stereotypic, demeaning ways that focused on culture and language.”
“The college took this situation very seriously and acted as quickly as possible to take substantial disciplinary action and create opportunities for dialogue,” CC president Richard Celeste said in a release. “Colorado College must be a diverse, respectful community, where we value all persons and seek to learn from their diverse experiences and perspectives.”
CC coach Scott Owens said the four players returned the team last week. They all played in last weekend’s exhibition game against the U.S. under-18 team and will be available Friday when CC plays a two-game series against Minnesota.
“The intent was to have good costumes,” Thauwald told The Gazette. “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.”
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
