Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990 TAG: 9007110271
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
"Our head was in the sand" before Campanis made his statement on network television, costing him his position in the Los Angeles Dodgers' front office, Richard Lapchick said.
"In the world of ironies, Campanis' irony was [that] without his statement, we wouldn't have taken a look or made the progress we've had," he added.
Lapchick's report said the NBA made greater racial progress in the past year than major-league baseball and the NFL, but that all three did better than the rest of society.
Lapchick is director of Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, which issued the report. The three-sport study excluded the NHL, saying it had just 13 black players in its 73-year history, a number that is unlikely to change significantly since few blacks play youth hockey.
In its "1990 Racial Report Card," the study gave the NBA an "A," the NFL and major-league baseball a "C+" and society a "C-." In terms of improvement from 1988 to 1989, the NBA received an "A," the NFL a "B," and major-league baseball a "C+." Society got a "D+" for the same period.
"The reason the grades were as high as they were in some areas was because we put this in the perspective of society, and when you do that, pro sports leap out as higher grounds," Lapchick said. "We have seen improvement and change since Campanis."
While the U.S. population is 12 percent black, in the most recently completed seasons the percentage of black players was 75 percent in the NBA, 60 percent in the NFL and 17 percent in major-league baseball, Lapchick said.
The report said the percentage of black players in the NFL and NBA remained unchanged the past two years, while the percentage in major-league baseball is lower "than at any time in recent years."
In the NBA, the number of black head coaches increased from five to six from 1988-89 to 1989-90.
The report said National League president Bill White, who is black, hired Larry Doby and Joe Black, who both are black, for his office. The Boston Red Sox also hired Elaine Weddington as baseball's first black woman assistant general manager.
"There's always room for improvement," Lapchick said. "In the front-office area, there's no question that we're looking toward increasing those numbers as rapidly as possible."
The report praised commissioners Paul Tagliabue of the NFL and Fay Vincent of major-league baseball, but said the NBA's "David Stern still has the best record of all the commissioners" in involving minorities.
"While a sense of despair and hopelessness permeates many urban communities because of a general desperation of lifestyle," the report concluded, "all three pro sports continued to improve opportunities for blacks in the period surveyed."
However, it warned minorities against "the irrational pursuit of 10,000-to-1 odds" against a high school athlete reaching the pros.
"The black high school athlete still has a better chance of becoming an attorney or a doctor than a professional player," it said.
by CNB