Hacker Places Racial Slurs on the NCAA’s Web Site

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Someone hacked into the NCAA’s Internet home page Sunday and temporarily replaced it with racial slurs, but officials were able to divert web surfers to the proper page.

The World Wide Web site normally featuring the NCAA and links to other sites showcasing its different athletic programs was abruptly changed early Sunday evening with a page titled “Anti-ncaa.” Below it was an encircled fist accompanied by the words “White Power.”

Below that were the words “FAT nigger counter,” above a counter used to gauge the number of people visiting the site.

Later, the offending page was replaced with a similar page without the racial slurs. It read “Basketball sucks? Badminton Rules!” and under the counter its fractured grammar read, “Stop commercialization of the Internet stops here.”

The invading page appeared soon after the NCAA announced its seedings and pairings for its basketball tournament.

But as of 7:30 p.m. PST, the NCAA apparently had been able to divert users to the proper page.

“We’re obviously very upset, very disturbed that it happened,” said NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro. “It’s probably not any accident that it happened on a selection Sunday night.”