Blue v. University Interscholastic League

• Decision Date: 19 November 1980
• Docket Number: 3-80-1501-H.,Civ. A. No. 3-80-1500-H
• Citation: 503 F. Supp. 1030
• Parties: Phil BLUE and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE, District 13AAAAA Executive Committee, and John Byrd, Defendants. John BYRD, Plaintiff, v. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE and The District 13AAAAA Executive Committee, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Texas

503 F. Supp. 1030

Phil BLUE and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE, District 13AAAAA Executive Committee, and John Byrd, Defendants.

John BYRD, Plaintiff, v. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE and The District 13AAAAA Executive Committee, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 3-80-1500-H, 3-80-1501-H.

United States District Court, N. D. Texas, Dallas Division.

November 19, 1980.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Cornel Walker, Banner & Walker, Greenville, Tex., for plaintiff Blue et al.

Martin Hotchkiss, Dallas, Tex., for plaintiff Byrd, and defendant Byrd.

Robert Gauss, Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, Tex., Henry D. Akin, Jr., Cathy Akin, Akin & Akin, Earl Luna, Dallas, Tex., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SANDERS, District Judge.

These two companion cases are before the Court on Plaintiffs' Applications for Preliminary Injunction, the Court having on November 14, 1980, denied Applications for Temporary Restraining Orders. The cases involve the legitimacy, in concept and application, of certain rules of the University Interscholastic League. The rules in question provide that students nineteen years of age and older are ineligible to participate in League contests, and establish penalties for violation of this age eligibility requirement.

In the Blue case, Plaintiff, for himself and all other members of the Greenville (Texas) High School football team, seeks to enjoin Defendants (1) from enforcing the age eligibility rule, and (2) from allowing any team from District 13AAAAA other than Greenville from participating in the League playoffs which begin November 21, 1980. In the other case (CA-3-80-1500-H) Plaintiff Byrd, whose ineligibility because of age generated this litigation, seeks the same relief as the Blue Plaintiffs, together with injunctive relief which would permit him to participate in the football playoffs despite his being over nineteen years of age.

The Court has read and considered the pleadings, the briefs and argument of counsel, and the affidavits on file, and makes the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

Findings of Fact

1. John Byrd is a senior at Greenville High School, in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, and until October 23, 1980, was a member of the Greenville Lion football team. Byrd is 19 years of age, and was born on July 13, 1961.

2. Phil Blue is a member of the Greenville Lion football team and seeks to represent the class of all football players on the Greenville High School football team for the 1980-1981 school year.

3. The University Interscholastic League ("UIL") is a voluntary association of member schools throughout the State of Texas. Schools which wish to compete against other member schools join the league and agree to abide by certain rules.

4. The UIL manages and governs all interscholastic league activities including all public football teams in Texas public high schools. The rules and regulations which govern the eligibility of players and teams to play in League sponsored football games are enacted after discussion and a vote by all the member schools.

5. The District 13AAAAA Executive Committee is composed of public school administrators from the Independent School Districts within District 13AAAAA and is charged by the UIL with the responsibility for administering any penalty provided under UIL rules for violation of any rule or regulation.

6. Article VIII, Section 1, of the Constitution and Contest Rules of the UIL for 1980-1981, provides that "a person who has reached his 19th birthday on or before the first day of September preceding the contest shall not participate in any League contest."

7. Article XIII, Section 7, provides that "the minimum penalty for using an ineligible contestant is forfeiture of the contest in which the ineligible contestant participated." Plaintiff Byrd reached his nineteenth birthday before the first day of September, 1980. He played in five UIL contests as a member of the Greenville High School football team after September 1, 1980.

8. The responsibility for determining the eligibility of a player rests with the administration, faculty and coaches of the player's school. On October 21, 1980, Dr. Arnold Oates, Superintendent of the Greenville Independent School District, informed the District 13AAAAA Executive Committee that an ineligible player had participated in five football games and requested the Committee to review the violation.

9. On October 23, 1980, the District 13AAAAA Executive Committee met and heard from Dr. Oates regarding the discrepancy in Plaintiff Byrd's birthdate and Greenville's request for probation. The Committee decided that the minimum penalty must be assessed, ruled that John Byrd was, and had been, ineligible to be a participant on the Greenville High School football team, and ordered the Greenville High School football team to forfeit the five games in which John Byrd had participated.

10. Neither John Byrd nor Phil Blue, on behalf of the class, knew that it was a violation of UIL rules for John Byrd to play football with the Greenville High School team because he was over 19 years of age on September 1, 1980.

11. The UIL rules and regulations do not provide for a hearing on the violation of the 19-year rule or prior to the imposition of any penalty against the individual player, the football team of which he is a member, or the individual players on that team.

12. Because of the forfeit of five games, imposed by the District 13AAAAA Executive Committee, the Greenville team is ineligible for the playoffs which are scheduled to begin on November 21, 1980.

Conclusions of Law

1. This Court has jurisdiction. The federal question alleged by Plaintiffs is not clearly immaterial nor wholly insubstantial or frivolous. See generally Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 279, 97 S.Ct. 568, 572, 50 L.Ed.2d 471, 478 (1977); Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 681-83, 66 S.Ct. 773, 776, 90 L.Ed. 939, 942-44 (1946).

2. In order to sustain a claim of unconstitutional deprivation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Plaintiffs must establish that state action has operated to infringe a right secured to them by the Constitution or laws of the United States. Gomez v. Toledo, 446 U.S. 635, 100 S.Ct. 1920, 64 L.Ed.2d 572 (1980); Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 171, 81 S.Ct. 473, 475, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961).

3. The rules and regulations enacted by the UIL and the enforcement of such rules by the District 13AAAAA Executive Committee constitute state action for the purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 1983. Walsh v. Louisiana High School Athletic Ass'n, 616 F.2d 152 (5th Cir.), rehearing denied, 621 F.2d 440 (1980); Kite v. Marshall, 494 F.Supp. 227 (S.D.Tex. 1980).

4. The penalty imposed by the UIL and the District 13AAAAA Executive Committee on John Byrd and the Greenville High School football players for violation of the 19-year-old rule does not violate their Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.

a. The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment extends constitutional protection to those fundamental aspects of life, liberty, and property that rise to the level of a "legitimate claim of entitlement" but does not protect lesser interests or "mere expectations." Memphis Light Gas & Water Division v. Craft, 436 U.S. 1, 9, 98 S.Ct. 1554 1560, 56 L.Ed.2d 30 (1978); Perry v. Sinderman, 408 U.S. 593, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972).

b. The interests of John Byrd and Phil Blue, as a representative of the Greenville High School football players, in participating in the UIL football playoffs amounts to a mere expectation rather than a constitutionally protected claim of entitlement. Walsh v. Louisiana High School, 616 F.2d 152 (5th Cir.), rehearing denied 621 F.2d 440 (1980) c. Plaintiffs have no property interest in the alleged injury to their hoped-for careers in college football or for football scholarships arising from inability to play in the football playoffs or to be viewed by college scouts. Parish v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 506 F.2d 1028 (5th Cir. 1975).

d. The privilege of participating in interscholastic athletics, therefore, must be deemed to fall outside the protection of due process. Mitchell v. Louisiana High School Athletic Ass'n, 430 F.2d 1155 (5th Cir. 1970); see also Moreland v. Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League, 572 F.2d 121, 123-24 (3d Cir. 1978); Hamilton v. Tennessee Secondary Athletic Ass'n, 552 F.2d 681, 682 (6th Cir. 1976).

e. Since Plaintiffs have no liberty or property interest in playing interscholastic sports, the Court is not required to determine whether Plaintiffs were accorded procedural due process of law in the UIL's ruling that Byrd was ineligible and that Greenville must forfeit the five games in which he played.

5. The 19-year old rule, as applied by the UIL and the District 13AAAAA Executive Committee, does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the laws.

a. When analyzing state action which is under attack as violative of equal protection, the court must recognize the applicable standard of judicial scrutiny.

b. If the state action in question infringes upon a "fundamental right" or creates an inherently

...