Court Rejects College Basketball Player’s Defamation Suit Against Coach (Stemming from Dispute About Alleged Racism)

From yesterday’s N.C. Court of Appeals decision in Fox v. Lenoir-Rhyne Univ., written by Judge Fred Gore and joined by Chief Judge Chris Dillon and Judge Donna Stroud:

Plaintiffs … were recruited to play women’s basketball at Lenoir-Rhyne University …. During the height of COVID-19 in the 2020-2021 basketball season, there were racial tensions within the basketball team that caused the coaches and some administrative personnel to hold a meeting with the team. The team agreed to limit their team communication to only basketball-related and team goal-oriented discussions. Plaintiff Fox organized a “Symposium” for the basketball team and other university administrators to discuss racial prejudice, and later organized a second symposium, “The Talk,” open to the entire university, to further discuss racial prejudice. Plaintiff Fox alleges the coaches sought to “retaliate” against her and other African American teammates after these events.

Plaintiffs attested in their affidavits that they were forced off the basketball team at the end of the 2020-2021 basketball season. Plaintiff Fox had a meeting with the coaches in which the coaches told her she did not fit into the culture of the team and that she would not be welcomed back onto the team for the 2021-2022 basketball season. The coaches offered to still give plaintiff Fox her full scholarship for the 2021-2022 basketball season. [Further details of actions taken with respect to to other plaintiffs omitted. -EV] …

{Plaintiff Fox [later] published a letter on social media, entitled “An Open Letter to Lenoir-Rhyne University” along with multiple social media pictures entitled, “The Racist ‘Culture’ of Lenoir-Rhyne University,” “Quotes From Racist Teammates,” “The Coaching Staff,” “The NCAA & LR,” and “Ignorance.” Within the letter and social media posts, plaintiff Fox made claims of racism against coaches, basketball teammates, Lenoir-Rhyne, and claimed multiple players were forced to leave the basketball team because of racism.}

In response, Lenoir-Rhyne’s president, Frederick Whitt, published a letter to the entire Lenoir-Rhyne community in which he stated the following:

Yesterday, a former student-athlete posted a number of false claims on social media, including that she was dismissed from the women’s basketball team for speaking out against racism and advocating for social justice. Lenoir-Rhyne flatly disagrees with this student’s version of events. Her dismissal from the basketball team was a legitimate coaching decision, and suggestions to the contrary are simply false.

The court held, without much elaboration, that this statement was, as a matter of law, not libelous. It also rejected plaintiffs’ contract claims, concluding that the university acted consistently with any written or oral contracts.

Charles E. Johnson, David C. Kimball, and Spencer T. Wiles (Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A) represent defendants.

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