Eagleson has been the director of the players' union since its inception in 1967.

Hunter, executive director of the players' union, had met in mid-April with agents for some elite players.

"You tell me," said Chuck Rocha, the national political director of the steelworkers' union.

Between 1987 and 1993, he worked as a national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I don't think it's good for the league if there is no similar competing team," Billy Hunter, the executive director of the players' union, said recently.

Donald Fehr, the executive director of the players' union, has zeroed in on the exemption as the owners' legal backbone.

"Management left us no choice but to set a strike date," Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the players' union, said at a news conference here.

Reached in Northern California by telephone, Billy Hunter, the executive director of the players' union, took issue with the new rules.

"Everyone knows that smoking can kill you, but still the government subsidizes tobacco," said Donald Fehr, executive director of the baseball players' union.

In 1965, she became the assistant legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, a position she held until 1970.