ESPN​'s Film on Carter High Football Fiasco Doesn’t Pay Tribute to ​real Watchdog Hero

He's a nearly forgotten algebra teacher who almost 30 years ago caused the biggest stink ever in Texas high school football.In the early years of the no-pass, no-play rule for high school sports, this teacher, Wilfred M. Bates at Dallas Carter High, refused to change a failing grade to 70 or above, the required minimum for Carter Cowboys' star player, Gary Edwards (and all other public school athletes) to play.After an anonymous complaint and investigation, the Cowboys were kicked out of the football playoffs. But then in head-spinning moves for the Oak Cliff community, their beloved team was reinstated, kicked out, and then put back in. The story went national, and that's happening again, all these years later.Last week, ESPN debuted another of its wonderful 30 on 30 sports documentaries. This one is called What Carter Lost. The 1988 story is told in exceptional detail.Except.Teacher Bates' views are not adequately represented. He died in 2012. His son Fred Bates tells me that when documentary director Adam Hootnick came calling, the son declined to participate on behalf of his father.  Continue reading...