1983 THROWBACK: BASKETBALL STAR FORCED TO REPEAT 7TH GRADE"

Kevin Ross crammed a lifetime of excitement into a few days last week when he graduated from high school and then appeared on ABC's Nightline.

Perhaps you saw the show and learned of his story. But perhaps you already knew of Kevin Ross.

Maybe you were shocked and even a bit outraged, like so many of us, last September when Ross was enrolled in a third grade class in a Chicago preparatory school. At the time, Kevin Ross was 22 years old and stood 6-9 and had just finished spending four years on the campus of Creighton University, which had recruited him to play basketball.

Kevin obviously did nothing more than waste his time at Creighton, the tradition-rich Jesuit school in Omaha, Neb., because after spending four years there he still could barely read. It was obvious that Creighton had failed Ross and failed itself by allowing him to stay in school and participate in basketball.

The newspaper photo of Ross sitting in a room crowded with third graders was both heart-warming and gut-wrenching. How, you asked, could this happen? And how many other Kevin Rosses have been turned out of American colleges and universities with four years worth of letter jackets when they couldn't spell letter jacket?

In many ways you had to both admire and applaud Ross for admitting he was unfit to cope with the world and trying to do something about it. And in just as many ways it was very easy to burn Creighton University at the stake. At least in the beginning.

But after closer examination, you also had to give the school some credit. Creighton athletic director George Offenburger admitted the university's horrible error. But Offenburger also recommended that Ross enroll in Westside Preparatory School in Chicago. Creighton even paid the bill, $6,500 for the year of study.
"We've failed Kevin, but now we need to do right by him," Offenburger said at the time.

Видео 1983 THROWBACK: BASKETBALL STAR FORCED TO REPEAT 7TH GRADE" канала Hezakya Newz & Films