Playing the racial report card

Sporting News, The, Sept 9, 1996 by Richard Lapchick

As we approach the 50th anniversary year of Jackie Robinson's breaking baseball's color barrier, the intensity of the attempts to change front-office and on-field hiring practices to include more people of color in pro sports clearly has been disrupted. That is the most notable conclusion to be drawn from the hundreds of data entries in the 35 pages of the eighth Racial Report Card issued by Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society.

Pro sports is below its peak levels in almost every category covered in the report card, including player opportunities, the commissioners' end league offices, head coaching and management. Only in the categories of administration and assistant coaching are we at record levels in 1996.

As in all previous years, no league received an A in the all-important category of front-office hiring practices. The NBA received a B in the area of top management and in administrative posts, and major league baseball received a C- in top management. The NFL received a C and a B, respectively, in top management and in administrative posts.

The good news is that this year's results show that the previously registered across the-board declines for people of color in professional team administrative positions, as well as in the coaching ranks, has been stemmed and, in most cases, reversed.

The NBA had the highest grade in virtually every major category. When all categories are combined, the NBA once again came out on top with the same A- it received in 1995. However, its grasp on the top spot was not as firm as in previous years with percentage declines in minorities holding positions in the league office, among general managers, team vice presidents and support staff. There were important increases in minorities holding positions of head and assistant coach and in the professional administrative category.

Major league baseball maintained an overall B. It showed a decrease in the percentage of department heads in the league offices, among coaches and vice presidents. There was an increase in the overall percentage of minorities in the league offices.

The NFL received a B for the fourth consecutive year. It had percentage increases for minorities in the head and assistant coaching ranks, in team vice presidents and the professional administrative category. However, there was a percentage decline in minorities holding positions in the league office.

The National Basketball Players Association and National Football League Players Association were way ahead of the leagues and teams and had the best records of the six organizations examined. Both received A's; the Major League Baseball Players Association, which had the lowest grade (C-) in 1995, did not submit a report in 1996.

It is notable that the percentage of minorities playing professional sports dropped in all three leagues In the NBA, the percentage of black players dropped from 82 to 80 percent; in the 1995 NFL season, 67 percent of the players were black, down 1 percent, and in major league baseball, the number of players who were black or Hispanic dropped from 38 to 37 percent.

The NFL reached an all-time high when the Buccaneers hired Tony Dungy, making him the third black head coach. The number of minority coaches in the three sports increased from 11 to 13, still below the high water mark of 16 in 1993. In the NBA, three black coaches were hired Dim Cleamons of the Mavericks, Johnny Davis of the 76ers and Darryl Walker of the Raptors), and two black head coaches were dismissed (Butch Beard of the Nets and John Lucas of the 76ers).

In all three sports combined, top management positions (chairman of the board, chief executive officer, president, vice president and general manager) held by minorities decreased slightly.

Other than support staff, most people employed in front offices hold administrative positions in areas such as business operations, community relations, finance, game operations, marketing, promotions, publications and public relations. Therefore, it was a good sign that such positions held by people of color increased in the NBA and the NFL. Nearly 16 percent were held by minorities in the NBA and 12 percent in the NFL. Sufficient data was not available for baseball in this category.

The remarkable surges in opportunities for people of color and women after the highly publicized and highly charged comments by Al Campanis on Nightline in 1987 and by Marge Schott in 1992 seemed to harken a new era of equal opportunity in sports. It obviously was short-lived.

Those surges were moved in part by pressure from the Rev. Jesse Jackson as well as media coverage of previous poor records. Jackson's efforts have focused on other areas of national interest the last two years.

Sports has a long way to go before it becomes much better than society in whom it hires for decision-making positions. In spite of intelligent and enlightened leadership in the league offices of the NBA and NFL and on baseball's Executive Committee, white males have sustained their control of management on most teams.