Race Becomes Issue in Mississippi Game : Prep Controversy: All-white private school is charged with trying to forfeit football game because opposing team has a black player.

Charged with trying to forfeit a football game against another team that has a black player on its roster, East Holmes Academy, an all-white private high school of about 450 students just outside West, Miss., has become the center of a racial controversy and must either play the game or lose its membership in the Mississippi Private School Assn.

According to Don Souder, executive secretary of the MPSA, the school will comply and play the game Friday against Columbus Heritage Academy, which has one black player, reserve defensive back Scott Fuller.

No official reason was given for the forfeiture, news of which was sent to Heritage by letter last week. But East Holmes players were so incensed by their school’s decision that seven of them quit the team. They have rejoined the team.

B. B. Trehern was one of the seven. “I’d like to play but somebody’s got to do something,” Trehern told the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger. “We were all going to quit but about six. The rest of the guys thought, ‘It’s our last year, so we’ll go back.’ ”

Rose Dendy told the Clarion-Ledger that her son, Bryan, chose not to quit only because he thought it wouldn’t solve anything. She said she supported her son’s decision, but added, “I do not support the decision of the school not to play Columbus Heritage.”

The controversy has become the talk of the town, a cotton and dairy farming community about 70 miles north of Jackson.

Nathan Starns, an East Holmes alumnus, told the Clarion-Ledger that both the school and town were being embarrassed by the school’s headmaster, Frank Drake.

“Now it’s like everybody who’s white is a racist and everybody who’s black is an activist,” Starns said.

A black man interviewed by the paper refused to give his name for fear of reprisals, saying: “I don’t know how people’s minds work in this town. I would hate to be on my way home one night and a shot comes from nowhere, ‘Boom!’ ”

Souder said Monday that he was preparing a statement for release today, adding that Drake had been contacted and told that if East Holmes failed to comply with the association’s nondiscrimination policy, its membership would be revoked.

Drake reportedly met with the school board Monday and then told the MPSA executive committee that it would comply with association policy.

“(Drake) has given assurances to us that (East Holmes) will abide by all the rules and regulations and the policies of the association, especially the nondiscrimination policy,” Souder said.

Earlier this fall, East Holmes was accused of barring a black announcer from working one of its games.

Announcer Lee Adams of WJXN radio in Jackson, charged in that incident that Glen Collins was barred from announcing a game between East Holmes and Jackson Academy on Aug. 25 because he is black. Collins is a former Mississippi State player who went on to play professionally with the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers.

Adams and Collins customarily announce Jackson Academy games together.

Adams said he was told by Athletic Director Bobby West of East Holmes that Collins couldn’t help broadcast the game. Adams then announced the game alone.

“Bobby West called me a couple days before the game and told me that Glen wasn’t welcome up there (at East Homes) because he was black,” Allen recently told the Associated Press.

West would not comment about the situation except to say, “I passed along the information given to me (by Drake).”

Collins could not be reached for comment.

Drake denied that claim, saying, “That was not the case. I have never told anybody nor turned down anybody.”

He would not talk about the accusations otherwise, however, when reached recently.

“We have some very important business going on,” he told a reporter. “I’ve got people in the office with me right now. Whatever you’ve got, it’s no comment. Call me back in two weeks and maybe I’ll talk to you. In two weeks I can say some stuff I can’t say now.”

Said Souder of East Holmes’ decision to ban Collins from announcing the Aug. 25 game: “To be honest, we were not aware of that at all (until recently). This other matter could very possibly come up and if it does it may be addressed by the executive committee.”

Times staff writer Rich Roberts contributed to this story.