Black Athletes

In 1968, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos shocked the world by thrusting black power fists from the victory stand at the Mexico City Olympics. Harry Edwards, today a sociology professor at the University of California at Berkeley, urged African-American athletes back then to ''liberate black people through the use of athletics.''Liberation never happened. A thimbleful of African-American men have million-dollar contracts, while a quarter of African-American men ages 20-29 have a criminal record.

A lot of people can't get past the title. That's not entirely true - enough people got past the title of William C. Rhoden's book, $40 Million Slaves, to land it briefly on The New York Times best-seller list this summer, and to make it one of the most popular sports books of the year. But to those who, like many a bookstore customer and interviewer, have gotten stuck on the harsh juxtaposition of that title, consider this a request - no, a plea - to keep reading. Read the subtitle The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete, and everything that follows.

A lot of people can't get past the title. That's not entirely true - enough people got past the title of William C. Rhoden's book, $40 Million Slaves, to land it briefly on The New York Times best-seller list this summer, and to make it one of the most popular sports books of the year. But to those who, like many a bookstore customer and interviewer, have gotten stuck on the harsh juxtaposition of that title, consider this a request - no, a plea - to keep reading. Read the subtitle The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete, and everything that follows.

A study conducted by a Florida campus think tank has found considerable improvement in graduation rates among African-American student-athletes over a 15-year period, from 35 percent in the group that entered college in 1984 to 52 percent for the entering group in 1998. "The good news is the increase," said Freeman Hrabowski, the president of UMBC. "The bad news is that the baseline was so low. We still have plenty of work to do." The study was conducted by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

At the Pimlico Hotel Restaurant, a lady says to Sam Lacy, "You don't remember me, but we met years ago.""Oh, I remember you," says Lacy, gently taking her hand. "I may not remember your name, but I never forget a pretty face."The lady is of Sam Lacy's generation. He is 87 years old. After 60 years as a newspaperman, he is getting a certain recognition overdue by only 40 or 50 years. The lady has a copy of Sports Illustrated in her hand, containing three pages and five photographs on Lacy.

The way Annapolis baseball coach Larry Brogden sees it, today's youth have too many other things to do with their time then spend it participating in sports."

Hall of Fame football player Paul Hornung has triggered an uproar of political incorrectness by suggesting Notre Dame lower its academic standards for black athletes so the Fighting Irish could win more football games. Hornung, a former Heisman Trophy winner for Notre Dame, was asked about the school's national championship chances in the wake of last year's 5-7 record. "You can't play that type of schedule," he said Tuesday night on a radio talk show in Detroit. "We're playing eight bowl teams [in 2004]

The Black Coaches Association met the other day with the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss ways of changing some of the regulations and practices of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The coaches feel that blacks have been excluded from leadership roles in the NCAA, and that decisions regarding such things as the size of staffs and the number of scholarships have been harmful to black youths.Many of the items on the black coaches' bill of particulars are right on target, but one is not. That is their opposition to raising admissions standards for athletes.

Morgan State University athletic director Leonard Braxton said last night that black athletes would be "knocked backward" toward the junior college level by yesterday's vote by NCAA schools for the toughest academic standards in the history of collegiate sports.Braxton said: "If we can't give financial assistance to Division I black athletes, they will have to go to junior colleges. The cost of going to Syracuse is $22,000 a year, and there's no way a lot of black athletes can afford it. It's all set up now where they [predominantly white schools]

Calvin Hill's sports career got off to a strong start in 1969. Signed by the Dallas Cowboys as a running back, he finished the season as Rookie of the Year and soon landed a deal to promote the soft drink Dr Pepper.A few other sponsorship deals followed, but nothing spectacular. That was consistent with his expectations: In those days, even a standout athlete, if he was black, knew that racial barriers remained for off-field earnings long after they had fallen for team rosters."I was fortunate that I was able to do some things with Dr Pepper.

There have been times when Dwight Parker stood at the start of a 1,600- or 3,200-meter run, looked down the line at his opponents, and reached an alarming conclusion. "I did realize that there weren't that many African-Americans who ran the long-distance events," said Parker, an African-American who is a junior at Woodlawn. "I didn't get discouraged when I saw more Caucasians or Asian-Americans. At the time, it wasn't a big deal." Those times are changing. More male black athletes are shrugging off the stereotype that they should be sprinters and taking a shot at long-distance events in track and field.

TURIN, Italy -- Even as a child on Chicago's South Side, Shani Davis told friends he wanted to win speed skating's 1,000 meters at the Winter Olympics. He doesn't remember the reason he chose that event, but he must have had some sense of destiny because he won the race yesterday at the Oval Lingotto, becoming the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Games. American Vonetta Flowers was the first black athlete to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics with her victory in the bobsled four years ago in Salt Lake City, and Canadian hockey player Jarome Iginla later in those same Games became the first black man to win a winter gold medal.

The graduation gap between African-American and white athletes playing Division I-A football hasn't improved, a study released yesterday showed, providing more evidence of race disparity at the highest level of college football. The study, conducted by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, found that 47 percent of African-Americans who played Division I-A football during the 2003 season graduated, compared to 63 percent of white football players.

Hall of Fame football player Paul Hornung has triggered an uproar of political incorrectness by suggesting Notre Dame lower its academic standards for black athletes so the Fighting Irish could win more football games. Hornung, a former Heisman Trophy winner for Notre Dame, was asked about the school's national championship chances in the wake of last year's 5-7 record. "You can't play that type of schedule," he said Tuesday night on a radio talk show in Detroit. "We're playing eight bowl teams [in 2004]

IT'S ARGUABLY the most important book written in the past 10 years about American race relations. But it hasn't been discussed nearly as much as it deserves. The book is Darwin's Athletes. Its nerve-rattling and potentially invidious subtitle is "How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race." John Hoberman's work contended that African-Americans have a fixation on sports that helps reinforce the pernicious negative racial stereotype that says blacks are physically endowed but not the sharpest knives in the intellectual drawer.

"LOOK HOW white I am," he writes. "Am I lame or what?" That's Rick Reilly's "Life of Reilly" column from the Feb. 4 edition of Sports Illustrated. Several readers have passed it along, inviting comment from your humble correspondent, who is happy to oblige. For those who missed it, Mr. Reilly's piece delineates what he sees as a double standard that allows black athletes to insult white people with impunity. How, he wants to know, could Shaquille O'Neal get away with writing in his book how embarrassing it is to be dunked on by a white guy?

From a Baltimore pulpit, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson urged President Clinton yesterday to reverse U.S. policy of sending Haitian refugees back to their country and to help restore their ousted president to power.Mr. Jackson also criticized professional black athletes for failing to speak out against racism in sports management in his sermon before an enthusiastic, standing-room-only audience at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He would not comment afterward on reports that he is a candidate to become the next NAACP director.

ALTHOUGH the color line in professional basketball, football and baseball was broken more than a generation ago, big-league sports are still deeply rooted in this nation's racial divide.Bigotry routinely is expressed by players, fans, sports commentators and owners. Usually it is not overt. Mostly it is only implied -- just under the surface of ordinary conversations.From time to time, though, it erupts dramatically.Former CBS football commentator and handicapper Jimmy the Greek got into trouble a few years ago by suggesting that black athletes were superior because slave owners a century ago bred African-Americans for their strength.

SOMEHOW I can't get worked up much about whether black athletes are better than white athletes. While I'm a fan of many sports, and as a kid enjoyed playing a variety of games, no one in any of my families (the one I was born into and the one I helped produce) has been anything like a great athlete or has possessed an identity determined by the word "athlete," so the issue lacks immediacy. I relate to it as a distant entertainment, the way blimp pilots must relate to the Super Bowl. I wonder, really, to how many Americans is it relevant?

Calvin Hill's sports career got off to a strong start in 1969. Signed by the Dallas Cowboys as a running back, he finished the season as Rookie of the Year and soon landed a deal to promote the soft drink Dr Pepper.A few other sponsorship deals followed, but nothing spectacular. That was consistent with his expectations: In those days, even a standout athlete, if he was black, knew that racial barriers remained for off-field earnings long after they had fallen for team rosters."I was fortunate that I was able to do some things with Dr Pepper.