Date
of Release: August 25, 2008 (Sports Business Journal)
Games could have lasting impact for Asian-Americans
by Richard Lapchick
As the 2008 Olympic Games in China have been projected across the globe to one of the largest TV audiences ever, we saw Chinese athletes doing great things in gymnastics, swimming and diving. The enormous popularity of Yao Ming was seen in the opening ceremony and through the basketball tournament. Through last Tuesday’s events, Asian nations had won 32 percent of the gold medals, and China itself had won 21 percent. More...
_________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: August 14, 2008 (Special to ESPN.com)
China well-versed in controlling flow of information
by Richard Lapchick
When a news event takes place in a closed society, there can be concern about the flow of information and whether communications are open and honest. When the event is the Beijing Olympics, it becomes an even greater concern, as China has positioned itself to show the world what it had become. The Chinese government promised an open press when it secured the Games. It even changed its press laws starting in January 2007, and said the changes would remain in effect through October 2008 when they would elapse. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: August 8, 2008 (Special to ESPN.com)
Kept from Beijing, Team Darfur's Joe Cheek fights on
by Richard Lapchick
As someone who has tried to involve athletes as social change agents for more than 40 years, I have come to know the organizers at Team Darfur -- a coalition of athletes trying to raise awareness about the human tragedy in Darfur (Sudan) -- over the past few months. Team Darfur is unique in its size (nearly 400 athletes from more than 50 countries) and in the power of its voice. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: July 10, 2008 (Special to ESPN.com)
Althea Gibson must be smiling over Venus, Serena
by Richard Lapchick
As Venus and Serena Williams reached the 2008 Wimbledon final, many noted the great athletic accomplishments for the sisters, and fewer noted it as another racial milestone in sports. Venus's fifth singles title is surely remarkable, but it pales in comparison to the trailblazing efforts of Althea Gibson at Wimbledon in 1957. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: May 30, 2008 (Special to ESPN.com)
Tough swim through stereotypes for African-Americans
by Richard Lapchick
Blair
Cross was the only black female swimmer in the ACC last year. Brielle
White graduated from Virginia in 2006; for four years, she, too, was
the only black female swimmer in the ACC. Cross and White share a distinction
the organizers of the National Black Heritage Championship Swim Meet
want to erase. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: May 12, 2008 (Sports Business Journal)
Candidates’ aspirations changing expectations in sports
by Richard Lapchick
The
race for the Democratic nomination for president has elevated the optimism
of women and people of color as never before. Having it clear that we
will have either a woman or an African-American as a candidate has perhaps
increased expectations for the future so that 12- and 13-year-old children
will think that is normal. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: April 15, 2008 (Special to ESPN.com)
MLB's diversity would have Jackie shaking his head
by Richard Lapchick
Tuesday
is Jackie Robinson Day, commemorating the 61st anniversary of Robinson's
1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, which broke the color barrier
in Major League Baseball. A few weeks ago, I sat with Rachel Robinson,
Jackie's elegant and extraordinary wife who works to carry on his legacy,
at the Jackie Robinson Foundation Banquet at the Waldorf in New York
City. She knew that the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports
at the University of Central Florida was about to publish the 2008 MLB
Racial and Gender Report Card, as we do annually near the start of the
baseball season, and she asked how it looked. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: March 24, 2008 (SportsBusiness Journal)
Graduation rates show promise, room for improvement
by Richard Lapchick
As
the Sweet 16 approaches, the glory and dreams of alumni, fans, students,
faculty, administrators, and especially the student athletes of the
16 men’s and women’s teams that have survived to this point
have raised spirits throughout the country. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: February 28, 2008 (Special to ESPN.com)
Scott and Smith gave new look to Tobacco Road
by Richard Lapchick
I remember talking to Dean Smith about Charlie Scott nearly 25 years
after Scott became the first African-American scholarship athlete at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Coach Smith had called
me after he read that the Center for the Study of Sport in Society,
which I had founded at Northeastern University, had started a program
that was using former athletes to train young people to deal more effectively
with racial tensions and conflict. It was called Project Teamwork and
went on to be called "America's most successful violence prevention
program." Coach Smith was inquiring about it because he thought
Scott would be a perfect leader for Project Teamwork. Amazingly, Smith
made the call during the week that UNC was about to play in the Sweet
16 at the 1990 NCAA Tournament. What coach calls someone during that
week to talk about a player who had left his program decades before?
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: February 20, 2008 (Special to ESPN.com)
Breaking the college color barrier: Studies in courage
by Richard Lapchick
By now, many in sport celebrate the lives and courage of the first African-American
pro athletes to break the color barriers, especially during Black History
Month. Pretty much everyone knows the story of Jackie Robinson in Major
League Baseball. And more and more often, we read about Nat "Sweetwater"
Clifton, Earl Lloyd and Chuck Cooper in the NBA, Kenny Washington and
Woody Strode in the NFL and Willie O'Ree in the NHL. Yet few have any
idea about the African-American college athletes who were pioneers.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: February 1, 2008 (NewsOK.com)
Oklahoma degree program honored
by Scott Wright
Renaldo Works played one year of professional football and he'd had
enough.
"I was just tired of it,” the former Oklahoma Sooner running back said. "I was tired of getting hit.”
So
after a season split between the NFL's Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans,
Works faced the question many athletes face when they reach the end
of their athletic career: What now? More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: January 4, 2008 (Special to ESPN.com)
Tony
Elliott's life, death took tragic turns
by Richard Lapchick
Much of Tony Elliott's life was dominated by murders, guns and drug
addiction. Because he played in the NFL for seven seasons, the images
recall too many current stories about out-of-control athletes. But his
6-foot-4, 300-plus-pound frame, often draped in a mink coat, drew the
immediate attention of students who met him. The stories he told left
them mesmerized and reflective about choices they would make in their
own lives. This was the Tony Elliott I knew well since his early days
with the New Orleans Saints. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: December 10, 2007 (Sports Business Journal)
Group’s
growth a positive step for diversity in sports business
by Richard Lapchick
For many years, the window of opportunity for people of color in professional
sports may have seemed to be only narrowly open. As the last few Racial
and Gender Report Cards have shown, the window has been opened more
widely in the past few years. Seizing on that momentum with the goal
of opening it all the way, a group of professionals in sport has been
formed.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: October 08, 2007 (Sports Business Journal)
Racial-bias
issues shadow the case of Ronny Thompson
by Richard Lapchick
With all the attention being paid to the racial issues being raised
in Jena, La., it is
easy to see how far we are from the assurance of racial justice in America.
In my
opinion, the racial issues raised by the case of Ronny Thompson and
his departure
from Ball State University as basketball coach after a single season
have been
largely ignored.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: October 16, 2007 (Special to ESPN.com)
Past
lessons might offer hope for the 'Jena Six'
by Richard Lapchick
Mychal Bell might not know the lessons of Darryl Williams and Marcus
Dixon, but the latest turn in Bell's case makes his story the next chapter
in a series that includes the tales of those two African-American high
school football players from earlier generations. Together, they inform
us that racism is still too virulent in our society. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date of Release: September 27, 2007 (Special
to ESPN.com)
Take
notice of Latinas as leaders in the sports world
by Richard Lapchick
When we talk about diversity in America, too often the conversation
is limited to African-Americans and whites. The dimensions of diversity
have expanded to include different racial and ethnic groups, disabilities,
sexual orientations and other distinctions, but too often, when we think
about diversity, it is only in that two dimensional field. The celebration
of Hispanic Heritage Month is important because it gives us the opportunity
to reflect on how much we can learn about Hispanic or Latino athletes.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: August 28, 2007 (Special to the Orlando Sentinel)
Magic
owner gives generously, without fanfare
by Richard Lapchick
I have followed the comments by Harris Rosen about Rich DeVos and while
I have admired Rosen for his personal giving, I feel I need to respond.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: July 31, 2007 (Sports Business Journal)
National
Black Golf Hall of Fame
by Richard Lapchick
Having watched Tiger Woods dominate golf
for a decade, it is easy to forget how few African-Americans have been
in golf’s top ranks. It is equally easy for some to forget that
golf was long considered a country club sport. Many of those country
clubs were segregated, which meant that African-American athletes were
unlikely to participate. Where they did, they faced inferior facilities,
equipment and teachers. The pioneers who made it in these sports deserve
so much credit for not only breaking through America’s racial
barriers but also our class barriers. However, it has been a lost history
and that makes the work of the National Black Golf Hall of Fame so important.
Not only does it celebrate the lives of golf’s great past players,
but it records their history for others to learn from.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: May 9, 2007 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
NBA
diversity makes for a pretty big picture
by Richard Lapchick
Recently, there has been a wide-open
discussion in the media about a study that suggests a disproportionate
number of calls against black players are being made by white officials
in the NBA. ESPN.com alone has carried at least six articles on the
study, which was written by Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of
business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton
School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell graduate student in economics.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: April 18, 2007 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Can
we talk? The Imus story is helping
by Richard Lapchick
We might finally be approaching the
end of the story about Don Imus and the obscene, vulgar, racist and
sexist language he used on the air to describe the women's basketball
team at Rutgers University. It's fitting that Imus was removed from
both MSNBC and CBS, and it's good that coach C. Vivian Stringer's team
is being recognized as a classy, intelligent group of outstanding student-athletes.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: April 4, 2007 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Coach
Robinson was a blessing to America
by Richard Lapchick
I am a blessed man. I was asked to write
the autobiography of coach Eddie Robinson with coach Rob in 1996. I
did not know him personally before that, but enthusiastically agreed
because of the incredibly high regard in which I held him after following
his legendary career. Eddie Robinson was a rare gift to humanity.
We
called it the autobiography, "Never Before, Never Again,"
because there never was nor will be another man like coach Robinson.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: March 14, 2007 (Specal to ESPN.com Page 2)
NCAA
tourney titlist in college degrees? Holy Cross
by Richard Lapchick
Here are my winners in the NCAA
men's and women's basketball tournaments.
Holy
Cross.
And
Holy Cross.
Yes, I understand that no one is predicting the Cross to go deep in
either tournament. The Crusaders men's team plays fourth-seeded Southern
Illinois in the first round, while the Holy Cross women meet national
powerhouse Duke. But I'm not talking about the Crusaders' wins and losses
on the court. I'm talking about their academic successes. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: February 26, 2007 (Sports Business Journal)
History
Making Black History Month: Can Our Colleges do as Well?
by Richard Lapchick
Right in the middle of Black History
Month we found a sports event making history. The fact that the 2007
Super Bowl Sunday marked the first time two African-American head coaches
led their teams against each other in a Super Bowl was widely discussed
and extensively covered in the media. Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy, the
two coaches, were so gracious and humble that their frequent references
to their families and their faith seemed to further endear them to the
nation. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: February 15, 2007 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Hill
opened door to ACC
by Richard Lapchick
No African-American athlete had played
for a service academy. No African-American athlete had played in the
Atlantic Coast Conference. Activists were literally dying fighting for
civil rights in an era that most young people today have no idea about.
That is why Black History Month is so important. We put history in the
face of young people who make assumptions about entitlements for which
others sacrificed. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: February 7, 2007 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Georgia
Tech's McAshan helped pave the way
by Richard Lapchick
History sometimes has a strange way
of playing out. As we get into Black History Month, much attention is
placed, understandably, on events in the civil rights movement and the
National Civil Rights Museum located in Memphis, one of the centers
of protest activities in the South during the movement. Arguably the
saddest event in the civil rights era happened there when Martin Luther
King was gunned down on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in April 1968.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: January 17, 2007 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
My
gift to Ali: Hope for Peace
by Richard Lapchick
In my 61 years, I have visited more
than 125 countries. Wherever I traveled, as soon as it was discovered
I had anything to do with sports, someone asked if I knew Muhammad Ali.
Even the first time I visited Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, he asked
if I knew Ali. When I said, "Yes," he smiled wryly and said,
"I do, too!"
On
this day, Jan. 17, we celebrate Ali's 65th birthday. I doubt there is
another living American whose birth would be hailed more universally.
We first met at Kutsher's Country Club in Monticello, N.Y., in the early
1960s when he was viewed as a brash and bold young man. His political
side had not emerged publicly, and he was still known as Cassius Clay.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: January 15, 2007 (Sports Business Journal)
Start
the New Year Right with Even More Equal Hiring Practices
by Richard Lapchick
I have been writing the Racial and Gender
Report Card (RGRC) since the 1980s. In the beginning, it was almost
all bad news about how few opportunities there were for people of color
and women to coach our teams and manage our pro league offices, team
front offices and athletics departments. Then we added the colleges
in the mid-1990s and it was even worse where it was assumed that things
were more idealistic. The NBA was always better but in the beginning
was not stellar. On the fields and courts, there were dramatically increasing
numbers of African-American players.
More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: December 13, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Report
Card: Colleges have a long way to go
by Richard Lapchick
The University of Miami's hiring of
Randy Shannon as its head football coach made headlines last week, but
it wasn't enough to improve the grade that college football received
for its hiring practices this year under the College Racial and Gender
Report Card released Wednesday. College sports received a B-minus for
race and a B for gender hiring practices, but it received an F in the
area of hiring college football coaches, with only 5 percent of the
Division IA head coaches being African-American, compared to 45 percent
of the players. The report card, which I co-authored with Jenny Brenden,
was published by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at
the University of Central Florida. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: November 27, 2006 (Sports Business Journal)
NBA
Pioneers Stood Tall on Racial Issues
by Richard Lapchick
As the NBA season opened, two men who
helped found the league were in the news.
Red Auerbach, who was involved in every NBA season until his death at
the age of 89 in October, has helped shaped all of the different eras
of the league’s history. The other was my father, Joe Lapchick,
who was a rival coach of the New York Knicks from 1946 through 1956.
“Lapchick: The Life of a Legendary Player and Coach in the Glory
Days of Basketball” was written by one of his former players,
Gus Alfieri. The biography was published 36 years after my father’s
passing. My dad had also played professionally for 20 years, mainly
with the Original Celtics, and coached St. John’s University for
another 20 years. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: October 14, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
A
reason to celebrate sports: Buck O'Neil
by Richard Lapchick
It's
been a week of celebration, regrets and reflections after the passing
of the legendary Negro League star, Buck O'Neil on Friday.
Those
who knew him or knew of him are celebrating all he did to open doors
for African-American athletes through his own brilliant career as a
player and coach, and as an ambassador of the game. The regrets grow
from the many things he was not able to do because his country was not
ready for full integration, and from a special committee's failure to
vote him into the Baseball Hall of Fame this February in his 94th year.
Now there will be no 95th year. Posthumous induction into Cooperstown
will be nice; but his in-person acceptance would have been right. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: September 25, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Growth
in Latin participation good business
by Richard Lapchick
If sports fans notice America celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, they
might think of the great Latino players in Major League Baseball, in
which 29 percent of the players are Latino. Some might think of Latino
boxers. Depending on their interests, they might know that 20 percent
of Major League Soccer players are Latino. Still others might know that
more than 3 percent of NBA players and Division I college student-athletes
are Latino. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: September 11, 2006 (Sports Business Journal)
Power
at the top
by Richard Lapchick
The footballs are flying again with the NFL, college and high school
seasons now under way. The excitement is building, hopes are high, Cinderella
stories will be written, hearts will be broken, championships won. All
across the nation fans are cheering either live or in front of their
TV sets. As the seasons begin, it seems as if everyone has a chance
to win. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: August 17, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Report
Card: Tagliabue's legacy includes new model for racial hiring
by Richard Lapchick
There are many tributes pouring in as Paul Tagliabue steps down as NFL
commissioner. He leaves a sport that is thriving beyond most forecasters'
imagination. The economic vitality of the league is beyond compare and
seemingly secure with labor peace, loyal fans and fabulously wealthy
TV contracts. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: July 5, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
One
man's vote for commissioner: Reggie Williams
by Richard Lapchick
Reggie Williams is being considered for the commissioner's position
in the NFL. While I know that he is an out-of-the-box choice, I have
known Reggie since the 1980s and hope that he is chosen to succeed Paul
Tagliabue. I consider him to be an out-of-the-box candidate because
he is not currently an NFL insider, and there has never been an African-American
commissioner in any major pro sport. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: June 25, 2006 (The Orlando Sentinel)
Change
coming? Diversity in the newsroom
by Richard Lapchick
A year ago Fitz Hill, the former head football coach at San Jose State,
and I were addressing the Associated Press Sports Editors Convention
in Orlando about the racial and gender hiring practices in college and
professional sport. Garry Howard, one of the few African-American sport
editors in America, interrupted and said “it is great that you
do this on sport, but you should also do one on the media. Women and
people of color are certainly not represented well here.” John
Cherwa, the Tribune Sports Coordinator, left the room and came back
15 minutes later to say that he consulted with the APSE leaders and
they agreed to help facilitate the study which was released Thursday
afternoon at the 2006 APSE convention in Las Vegas. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: June 22, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Who's
covering whom? Sports sections lag in diversity
by Richard Lapchick
Two years after Ralph Wiley died so young at age 51, the Institute for
Diversity and Ethics in Sport, which I direct, released a study of key
sports department positions at all of the Associated Press Sports Editors
newspapers in the United States and Canada. The lack of diversity we
found in that study underlines the importance of Wiley's contributions
to our understanding of sport in America, especially at a time when
people of color dominate the percentages of players in the NBA and the
NFL, as well as in college football and basketball. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: May 18, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Promise
to prominence for Asian athletes
by Richard Lapchick
It has been almost 60 years since the New York Knicks selected the University
of Utah's Wat Misaka in the first round of the 1947 draft, making him
the NBA's first player of Asian descent. My dad was the Knicks' coach
back then, and liked what he'd seen of the Japanese-American, a 5-foot-7
guard, at Utah. There was no big reaction to Misaka's signing, nor was
there much reaction when he was let go only three games into the Knicks'
season. He had scored seven points...As we celebrate Asian Pacific American
Heritage Month this May, I've been thinking about those disparate reactions.
The institution of slavery and the slaughter of Native Americans probably
top the list, but the internment of Japanese-Americans during World
War II is right up there among the most racist and antidemocratic episodes
in our nation's history. It puzzles me that Misaka starred at Utah and
was the Knicks' first draft pick in the same decade that the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor, in the same decade that we interned thousands of
Japanese-Americans and in the same decade that we dropped two atomic
bombs on Japanese cities. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: May 1, 2006 (The Orlando Sentinel)
The
hiring of Keith Tribble raises the bar
by Richard Lapchick
When UCF announced that Keith Tribble will be the new athletic director,
it was an historic occasion. Not only did UCF have its own first African-American
athletic director, Tribble is one of less than 20 in the history of
119 member schools in Division IA. In 2006 Tribble became the 11th African-American
man to head up a program along with two Latino men. There are no Asian
or Native-American men or women, and no African-American or Latino women
in that position. It is a hire that got noticed all across the country. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: May 1, 2006 (Sports Business Journal)
Major League
Baseball and the Issue of Race: Selig Makes a Difference
by Richard Lapchick
As the Director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at
the University of Central Florida, I recently released the Major League
Baseball Racial and Gender Report Card. On the issue of race, it seemed
to show a world with two different hemispheres in MLB.
The first hemisphere is the one where Commissioner
Bud Selig has the most influence. In that realm, so much of the news
is positive regarding racial hiring practices. In the second realm of
the individual teams, the news is that of stagnation at best and decline
at worst. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: April 18, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Nats'
no-brainer: minority ownership
by Richard Lapchick
This week, Bud Selig is expected to name baseball's choice to be the
new owners of the Washington Nationals, who have been owned and operated
by Major League Baseball since February of 2002. Selig has a big opportunity
with this decision to continue the improvement in baseball's hiring
practices for race that already has been a mark of his tenure as commissioner.
As the majority of Washington's population is African-American, a choice
of the so-called Smulyan group, named for its leader, Jeff Smulyan,
would be another sign of Selig's determination to keep the issue of
race on the sport's front burner. More than $50 million of the Smulyan
group's capital comes from African-American partners. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: March 15, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
The
blame game for graduation rates
by Richard Lapchick
When a team wins a national championship, one of the fringe benefits
is the traditional visit to the White House and a meeting with the president
of the United States. It's an amazing feeling, being in the Oval Office
with the president. In my role with National Student-Athlete Day, I
experienced it on a number of occasions during the Clinton administration,
including several times when national championship teams were being
celebrated. National Student Athlete-Day on April 6 honors all that
is right about sport in America, recognizing people who contribute to
the effort to keep the "student" in student-athlete; and I
am proud to have been involved in the special day's creation. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: February 9, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Do
the right thing in D.C.
by Richard E. Lapchick
Major League Baseball has a unique opportunity
to renew African-American interest in the sport, from the youth level
through the major leagues. There have been a sharply declining number
of black participants and spectators over the past 20 years.
After
months of heated debate, the Washington, D.C., city council finally
voted this week to provide $611 million in District funds to finance
a new stadium for the Washington Nationals. Washingtonians were so excited
during the inaugural season last year, and I think most baseball fans
felt good that the nation's pastime had returned to our nation's capital. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: January 24, 2006 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
The
big screen makes us think
by Richard E. Lapchick
The release of "Glory Road" has once
again given us a movie that prompts a discussion about the issue of
race in America. The movie "Crash" went far deeper into stereotyping
and racism across all racial and ethnic groups, but it was seen by a
limited audience. Sports movies like "Glory Road," "Remember
the Titans" and "Hoop Dreams" are seen by wider audiences.
The depiction of life in these films raises many important questions
and inspires discussions about the state of America's race relations
today. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: October 24, 2005 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
NBA
players should dress up
by Richard E. Lapchick
I welcome the NBA's new dress code. Living in
Orlando, I attend many Magic games and see the injured players on the
bench wearing sport jackets and dress pants. I often hear comments in
the stands about what a professional-looking team it is, on and off
the court. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: September 21, 2005 (Special to ESPN.com Page 2)
Black
coaches win big
by Richard E. Lapchick
It was one of the last games of a long weekend
of football, with nearly 60 Division I-A games and 14 NFL games. The
Arizona Cardinals were just a few yards shy of a great comeback engineered
by quarterback Kurt Warner. Down 17-12, he drove the Cardinals to the
St. Louis 5-yard line in the final seconds. But the drive failed after
a sack and a false start. Had the Cardinals won, the victory for coach
Dennis Green's team would have meant that every single (nine at present)
African-American NFL and I-A college coach would have won on the same
weekend for the first time in the history of sports. It would have been
a remarkable achievement indeed, in light of how few African-American
coaches have had the opportunity to be head coaches either in the NFL
or in college -- there have been only 19 African-American I-A head coaches,
and only nine African-American NFL head coaches. More...
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: October 2005
(Sports Business Journal)
Another
Sad Day for New Orleans
by
Richard E. Lapchick
It is surprising that people have not become numb
after so many sad stories and so much nightmarish news that has come
out of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Loss of life, loss of home,
loss of memories, loss of hope – have all been recurring themes
of news stories coming from the Gulf. More…
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: October 18, 2005
2004 Racial
and Gender Report Card
by Richard E. Lapchick
With
all categories combined for the men’s leagues, the NBA had the
only A for race. The NBA was tied with Major League Soccer for gender
with a B. MLS was one of the top stories for the 2004 Racial and Gender
Report Card going from last to first in gender after receiving the only
F in the history of the Report. The WNBA had A’s in both for the
second time. As Val Ackerman announced her resignation as WNBA president,
in addition to launching the league itself, she clearly left an impressive
legacy regarding issues of diversity for the WNBA.
College sport showed an improvement in gender from a B to a B+ but dropped
slightly in race from a B to a B-. For the 2004 Report, it had a strong
combined B, third among all the categories surveyed.
Download
pdf version here.
______________________________________________________________________________
Date
of Release: September 14, 2005
The
healing power of sport
by Richard E. Lapchick
I flew to Baton Rouge on Wednesday with anger in my heart because of
what happened in New Orleans. I was angry that my country could not
respond adequatedly to the horror in those streets when water became
the enemy, that thousands of Americans were stranded in the Superdome
and at the Convention Center, that almost all were poor and African-American.
...Saints
running backs Deuce McAllister and Fred McAfee spent last weekend in
shelters set up in Mississippi. McAllister, well-known for his philanthropy
and commitment to the community, has joined McAfee, Saints wide receiver
Michael Lewis and San Diego Chargers punter Mike Scifres to form a coalition
they are calling Athletes Making a Difference to encourage athletes
and other residents of the United States to join in assisting the victims
of Hurricane Katrina. All four grew up in Mississippi or Louisiana and
were personally affected by Katrina. More...
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Date
of Release: August 26, 2005
Mascots
are a matter of respect
by Richard E. Lapchick
The NCAA has made many controversial decisions in its long history,
but I doubt any of them caused more of a public outcry than its attempt
to stop 18 schools from using "hostile and abusive" Native
American names, mascots and/or imagery.
There were unhappy people on both sides of the issue. Affected colleges and universities expressed outrage that the NCAA had stepped into the fray, while proponents of an all-out ban on ethnic names and mascots thought the organization hadn't gone far enough. The NCAA began preparing for the appeals process from the moment it made the initial announcement. So far, Florida State is the only school to appeal, and the NCAA ruled in its favor on Aug. 23.
I
think the NCAA, led by president Myles Brand, took a gutsy, if not perfect,
stand that finally turned the issue into a nation debate... More...
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Date
of Release: July 26, 2005
Bold
Move at Delaware State
My
goal, and the goal of most who work in diversity management, is to push
for the best person to be hired, whether that person is African-American,
Latino, Asian, Native American or white, and whether that person is
male or female...Today, I applaud Delaware State University, a historically
black university, for its courage in hiring Chuck Bell, who happens
to be white, as its new athletics director in the face of certain opposition.
Already, people at the school are saying it's wrong for a Historically
Black College or University (HBCU) to have a white athletics director.
More...
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Date
of Article: May 26, 2005 (Special op ed to the Orlando Sentinel)
"Celebrating
Asian-American athletes"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
May
is Asian American Heritage Month. I was the speaker for the Asian American
Heritage Council's gala earlier this month. Part of its mission is to
promote and enhance the positive image of Asian-Americans. More...
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Date
of Article: May 24, 2005 (Special for ESPN.com, Page 2)
"Pro
hoops set the standard"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
The NBA conference finals and the new WNBA season both began this past weekend – exciting times for basketball fans.
Twenty-one
years ago, David Stern took over as commissioner of an NBA in decline.
Attendance was down, the 1980 NBA Finals between the Lakers and 76ers
was shown only on tape-delay after the late-night news, and the game
had no iconic players. Critics worried the league was "too black"
and expected changes that would increase its popularity among its predominantly
white fan base.
Stern
made it clear from the start that his policy...More
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Date
of Article: April 14, 2005 (Special for ESPN.com, Page 2)
"Where's
the next D-Train?"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
It
has been pointed out before. But as the Nationals first take the field
Thursday night for their home-opening series, it's worth mentioning
again that they are playing in Washington, D.C., which is home to one
of the highest concentrations of African-Americans of any major American
city. That stands in stark contrast to the persistent decline of African-American
players in major-league baseball. More...
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Date of Article: February 16, 2005 (Special for ESPN.com, Page 2)
"Another
big step for the NFL"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
The
NFL, which has made so much progress in the past year in terms of hiring
African-American head coaches and general managers, took the giant step
Tuesday when the announcement was made that Arizona businessman Reggie
Fowler will buy the Minnesota Vikings from Red McCombs. Fowler is an
African-American who played college football at the University of Wyoming
as well as several years in the Canadian Football League, the National
Football League, and the United States Football League. More...
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Date of Article: February 9, 2005 (Special for ESPN.com, Page 2)
"Progress
continues--in the NFL"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
As the NFL season concluded with the proclamation that the New England Patriots are now officially a dynasty, another NFL dynasty seems to be crumbling.
As a longtime fan of Robert Kraft and the Patriots, I am delighted to see their on-the-field dynasty reach this point.
After many successful years as an assistant, Romeo Crennel is now in
charge.
And as someone who has followed the NFL's hiring practices for more
than two decades, I am also pleased to see the "good old boys network"
among head football coaches -- a dynasty of sorts itself -- continues
to fall apart now that Romeo Crennel has been hired as the new head
coach of the Cleveland Browns. More...
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Date
of Article: February 8, 2005 (Special for ESPN.com, Page 2)
"Stop
the hazing"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
“Parents:
Bishop Moore Athlete Hurt in Hazing” in the Orlando Sentinel’s
February 3rd edition was disturbing to me on several levels. Most striking
was that, like other hazing incidents reported across the country, no
action seemed to be taken by the school against the girls who allegedly
hazed a 15 year old player on the girls’ soccer team. She reported
that she was dropped on her head after teammates tried to dunk her head
in the toilet and suffered a cerebral contusion. More...
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Date
of Article: December 1, 2004 (Special for ESPN.com, Page 2)
"Shocked
and Surprised: Notre Dame Fires Ty Willingham"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
If
you believe in equal opportunity in sport, today may be the saddest
day in the history of American college football. I was in a state of
disbelief when Dr. Fritz Polite, my colleague at the University of Central
Florida, emailed me earlier this afternoon that Ty Willingham had been
fired from the University of Notre Dame. I thought he was joking. Dr.
Polite knew how closely I followed the situation of the lack of African-American
head coaches in Division IA football. More...
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Date
of Article: November 24, 2004 (Orlando Sentinel)
"Rough
Play is Out of Bounds"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
Few
will remember the score of last Friday’s NBA game between the
Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers, but no one will forget the violent
melee it spawned among fans and players. It put the future of the NBA
on the line. More...
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Date
of Article: November 17, 2004
"The
Buck Stops Here: Assessing Diversity among Campus and Conference Leaders
for Division IA Schools"
Released by the Institute for Diversity
and Ethics in Sport
Lack
of Diversity among Campus, Conference Leaders at Division IA Schools
May Contribute to Lack of Diversity in Head Football Coaching Positions.
As the controversy over the small number of African-American Division
IA head football coaches continues to make headlines during the 2004
college season, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the
University of Central Florida today released The Buck Stops Here: Assessing
Diversity among Campus and Conference Leaders for Division IA Schools.
Among the 117 Division IA colleges and universities, there are only
one Latino and five African-American head football coaches. More...
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Date
of Article: September 3, 2004 (ESPN.com)
"The
wake of the Kobe case"
by Page 2 staff
The
members of the Writers' Bloc aren't lawyers, so we'll stay away from
the legal ramifications. But, like every other sports fan in America
who has been caught up in the case for the last 13 months or so, we
wonder what the last 13 months have done to Kobe's legacy and life,
and what the future holds for the public's perception of him. More...
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Date
of Article: September 1, 2004 (ESPN.com)
"Searching
for football equality"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
In
the new millennium there have been 71 head coaching vacancies at Division
I-A institutions. Four African-Americans have been selected to lead
those football programs, representing five percent of the total. That
is only slightly above the 4.3 percent of the total of head coaches
today who are African-American. More...
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Date
of Article: July 19, 2004 (ESPN.com)
"
Is racism gone?"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
Two years ago, the late Ralph Wiley wrote a Page 2 column that started
this way:
Recently, news of a subtler sort was made when Ty Willingham and Tony
Dungy were hired as head coaches at the University of Notre Dame and
the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, respectively. This gave the great state
of Indiana, often linked to the Ku Klux Klan, four African-American
head coaches, including Mike Davis at Indiana U. basketball, and Isiah
Thomas of the Indiana Pacers.
What does it mean? Is racism gone? Is affirmative action denying a chance
to all white men? Is it a threat? A promise? Neither? More?
What's it all about? More...
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Date
of Article: June 10, 2004 (ESPN.com)
"The
BCA is Raising its Voice"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
There
was once a time when the Black Coaches Association struck fear in the
hearts of athletic directors and the NCAA, when veteran coaches like
John Thompson, John Chaney, George Raveling and Nolan Richardson were
involved with important issues like standardized testing and coaching
opportunities for minorities. More...
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Sports
Business Journal
"Bad
Decisions Follow Bad Conduct"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
The
decision to reinstate Gary Barnett is a huge psychological setback to
all the NCAA’s recently passed highly publicized efforts at reform
passed only recently. Working on issues in sport for more than three
decades, I am rarely surprised when bad decisions are made. However,
I admit that I was stunned that the University of Colorado decided to
reinstate Barnett as head football coach and to keep the administrative
team responsible for the university in tact. More...
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Date
of Article: April 14, 2004 (ESPN.com)
"Race
Hasn't Left the Ballpark"
by Dr. Richard Lapchick
The
media's coverage of Barry Bonds' move past Willie Mays and into third
place on the all-time home run list has been remarkable. From last season
to spring training to Opening Day to No. 661, it seems as if a day did
not pass without a story or at least a reference to the landmark home
run, which he hit Tuesday night in San Francisco in the Giants' 4-2
victory over Milwaukee. More...
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