sports freedom and the 4th

Sports has a unique spot in us history it has sometimes been ahead of society as a whole in the matter of eqaulty and civil rights. when we were still a legally segregated society Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby and others broke the segertation of major leauge baseball Arthur Ashe and Lee Elder in tennis and golf repectively Elder geeting death threats before he played in the Master's at Augusta undauanted he played. Curt Flood risked his carrer to fight the unjust labor practices or the baseball owners these are all courageous freedom fighters. Today we seem to think that the miltary are the only defenders of America's freedom but, private citizens have always been the bread and butter of the protections and liberties that we enjoy. These aforementioned athletes exhibted courage against racism and death threats to help this country thorugh some dark times where freedom was not always prevelant, as Lincoln said in his Gettysburgh Address to lead us to a more perfect Union but because of freedom fighters like this we as a country are moving closer in that direction.

Damn Steroids

It’s amazing how life imitates art, how music literature, music, books and film mirror and sometimes predict events of our day. Watching Alex Rodriquez squirm at his press conference, thinking of Barry Bonds on trail for perjury for allegedly lying about his steroid use and hearing the news that Senate Investigators are planning to call Roger Clemens back to Capitol Hill to testify again about his use of steroids… I can’t, help think about the Broadway play Damn Yankees. In the play a frustrated middle aged Washington Senators fan, “Joe Boyd” is seduced in to becoming” Joe Hardy” a power hitting youth who seemingly comes from nowhere to becoming the player the Senators need to win the championship. There is only one catch, “Joe had to promise his soul to the devil” to attain this power and skill. It seems to me the major league players who have gone down the road of steroid use were lured by its illusionary glory like Joe in Damn Yankees. They believed by giving in to something known to be harmful and illegal that it would bring them the ultimate glory. But just like the price paid in “Yankees”, steroids will promise you fame but instead have proven time and time again to bring shame and disgrace. In the play Mr. Applegate (the devil) and Lola (the seductress) convince Joe that the price of his soul is worth the glory that selling it brings. In the modern day drama being played out before our very eyes steroids is the seducer that is stealing the soul of these players. In the play Joe realizes that his life and integrity is worth more than the fame and glory of being the “great Joe Hardy” and refuses to give the devil his soul and gives Mr. Applebee back this illusionary power. We can only hope that the current major league players do the same. with steroids.

Breaking the Color Line

AS Barack Obama was making his acceptance speech last night as President- Elect of the United States. He was doing what Jackie Robinson had done some 60 years earlier. Becoming the first African American in a position that had up to that point always been held by white males. I know, you are probably thinking hold on how can you compare a baseball player to the job of President of the mighty United States? It may be not as much of a stretch as you think. First, both institutions were Lilly white ,both were held in high esteem by the public and helped to define us as a nation. Also both baseball and the presidency are uniquely American. Obama is similar to Robinson in the fact that he may have not been the greatest orator or leader in the African American Community as Robinson was not the greatest player in the Negro Leagues but both of them were the right men for the job and the time. Like Robinson, Obama owes his opportunity to many who sacrificed at great personal and collective loss to set the stage for his victory. For Robinson it was great Negro Le augers like Rube Foster, Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson and Satchell Paige all arguably better players than Robinson but did not have the will, calmness and soberness of task to take on all the attacks that would come from being the first. For Obama it was leaders like Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey , A Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisolm who made it possible for him to become the first. Like Robinson, Obama has the personality and popularity that can transcend race Robinson prevailed but not without personal sacrifice but he made it easier for those who followed let's hope that Obama can do the same.

The Great Debate
By Michael Robinson

As we approach the Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., some things to ponder:
I recently viewed the movie, “The Great Debaters”, the story about the members of the Wiley College Debate Team of the mid to late 1930’s. Wiley College was a small rural African American School located in Texas during the Jim Crow Era.
The thing that stood out most in this movie was that this small college in
Texas had some of our best and brightest minds housed within their campus. They showed how they debated other HBCU’s like Praie View A&M in Texas, Fisk University in Tennessee and Howard University of Washington D.C. all notable academic institutions at the time. The debaters were well prepared because the expectations for them were high and care and nurturing was present. What does this have to do with sports? Plenty, during this time, our HBCU’s were producing our best academic stars; their athletic teams were producing our best black athletes. In those days it was rare for an African American Athlete to go a predominantly white school and succeed. Sure there were of course some like Jesse Owens but, for the most part our institutions were the focal point of Black Athletic Achievement. Sadly, today that story has changed, our schools no longer get the top academic African American Students, and we long since lost our top athletes to the larger white schools. You may say isn’t that what Dr. King and others wanted during the civil rights movement; equal opportunity, integration, a colorblind society? Yes that is what they wanted, but I don’t think they wanted it at the cost of the institutions that gave them their first opportunities at a quality education when other schools wouldn’t even consider admitting them. Also I would argue that we have not yet achieved equal opportunity, integration or color blindness. If there is equal opportunity then why are there only 4% of the Football Head Coaches at major Universities African American? If there is integration why are many of our best and brightest flocking to the white Universities for athletics and academics? And the best and brightest white students aren’t coming to the African American Colleges. This scenario means it’s only a one-way street, which makes it assimilation not integration. A situation, which I don’t believe the Black Civil Rights Leaders, envisioned during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. The result of this means that our society is still very much separate but unequal. Predominantly white institutions routinely schedule HBCU’s in football, baseball and basketball for the purpose of pummeling them and padding their win totals. Years ago, before they took all the great players from these schools they would never schedule them for fear of being beaten by a smaller school. I am not advocating a return to segregation, but what I would like to see is the African American Community contribute to their HBCU’s through donations to the Alumni Associations and Booster Clubs, contribute scholarship money both academic and athletic. Additionally, I am advocating a even more radical concept why don’t parent’s who have blue chip players in the top sports start sending their kids back to the Black Schools. All it would take would be about 100 blue chippers a year to change the landscape of college sports and begin to shift the balance of power towards the HBCU’s. Some people may say that is not realistic because the top players want exposure to pro scouts, and that’s why they go to the big schools. I somewhat disagree; the scouts want the most talented players they don’t really care what schools they come from. In the 50’s 60’s 70’s and early 80’s they went to the black schools all the time to get top players. Just look at the Schools black athletes were chosen from during this era it’s a who’s who of Black Colleges. Let’s support the schools that support African Americans student-athletes and have no problem hiring Black Head Coaches. Like the young debater asks in the movie “The Great Debaters” when told they had a chance to debate a white school, he replied, “why do we have to debate a white school to validate us”. I could ask our young athletes the same question, why do we need a major college program to validate our success on the field and on the court?

The Myth of the Black Coach

With the recent firing of Karl Durell, the number of Black Coaches at the Division I or Bowl Champion Division just dropped from 6 out of 119 positions to 5 out of 119 positions. Whether Durell’s firing was fair is inconsequential because a University has the right to hire and fire a coach as they see fit. Durell, in fact did have a respectable record at UCLA, 35 win and 27 losses in 5 seasons with 5 consecutive Bowl appearances counting this season. Durell also, appeared to operate a fairly clean ship with no major infractions or incidents against his program. But the firing or hiring of an individual coach wont impact the numbers of minority coaches at the Division I level.
The pattern of hiring African American Head Coaches has more to do with Social Stratification than finding “qualified candidates. Though when College Administrators are asked about the dearth of African-American Coaches at their schools, you hear a lot of excuses; i.e. reasons for this lack of hiring :(1) they have to go through the proper chain of jobs, head coach at smaller schools, assistant coach, defensive or offensive coordinator at a larger school., (2) this process takes a long time, once a generation of coaches become qualified assistants then, the pool of qualified candidates will grow. On the surface these reasons sound reasonable but there are flaws in this logic. If these reasons are legitimate why do some white coaches come directly from Division 1AA or ((Bowl Subdivision Schools), straight into head coaching jobs in Division I football. Examples are Jim Tressell, Youngstown St. to Ohio St. or Brain Kelly, Division II Grand Valley St. to Central Michigan Jerry Faust from High School to Notre Dame... None of these coaches had to serve as a Defensive or Offensive Coordinator at a big school or in the NFL before landing a Division Head Coaching job. Could you imagine a successful head coach from a school like Grambling, Hampton or Delaware St., being hired as the head coach at LSU, Virginia or Virginia Tech or Maryland after being successful at their schools? No, but that’s because there is a caste system in Division I College Football, just like in other areas of our society. Black Coaches, especially the ones from Historically, Black Colleges lie at the bottom end of this caste system. Experience is not really the issue. Black coaches have plenty of experience, from grade school to high school through the College Level. This experience is gained primarily at predominately African American Institutions where these coaches they have been the primary teachers for many of these top level athletes that are now being coached by white head coaches at Division I schools. So whether they can coach is not really the issue. I believe that the underlying reason lies with the stratification of roles and status in our society, which assigns more value to things that are from the dominant culture. The position of head football coach is aligned directly to that of an institutional and community leader. Millions of dollars are funneled through these programs and most College Presidents and Trustee Boards at these Major Universities are not willing to turn over the reigns of their programs to African American Coaches. It comes down to the racial caste system that still is prevalent in our society. The African American Professional and their institutions are still viewed as inferior, and the head football coach is just the visible tip of the iceberg. If we go further to the root of the problem we see that these same institutions have less than 3% of their School Presidents who are African American and African American Professors only account for about 4% of the faculty at predominantly white institutions. So what it really comes down to is whether African American Coaches and their skills, knowledge and experience are valued by these majority white institutions. At this moment the answer is a resounding no. We have a long way to go before we can alleviate the caste system that prevents the hiring of capable African American Coaches.

Finally, Hens will meet Hornets

Finally, Hens will meet Hornets

By Michael Robinson

GOD, Destiny, Fate, or whatever you believe in, has intervened to insure the University of Delaware, (UD) will finally play Delaware State University (DSU) in football. The Blue Hens vs. The Hornets, Newark vs. Dover, Rich vs. Poor the haves vs. the have not's. You may ask what’s the big deal? Why all the excitement? (See Jeff Perlman’s; article (September 24th the Insider page of ESPN.Com). Perlman, a University of Delaware Graduate and Sports Writer believes race and class are the main reason behind the continual refusal of UD to play DSU in football. As Perlman states, “This is a natural rivalry, two schools are separated by only 50 miles”, but it might as well be 500.
Even the cites are different, Newark, UD’s location is home to the Dupont’s, and the business hub of the state while Dover, DSU’S home is located in the rural working class area of Delaware. UD is about 6% African American while DSU is overwhelmingly African –American. In fact DSU’s existence is predominately a by-product of racism, the School, founded in 1891, as a “ Separate but Equal” facility, when the state’s leaders decided that they did not want blacks attending their precious University. But as we know separate does not constitute equal. DSU has always had less resources, lower pay for their teachers and inferior facilities, both academic and athletic than their distant cousin, UD.
Despite these inequities, DSU has survived for 106 years, and has served as an opportunity for young African- American in the region to attend an institution of Higher Education. As for the football game, race may not be the only reason the two schools have not played each other for decades, but obviously in our society race is always an issue. Otherwise how can you explain the difficulty in scheduling the game? But now fate has stepped in and as both teams have made the (Bowl Subdivision), formerly IAA playoffs, they are destined to meet for the first time on Friday November 23rd. There is most likely elation and vindication in Dover and nervous apprehension in Newark.
I hope that no matter the outcome of the score, there will be two victories for each team; Hope and Fairness, and also two losers; Fear and Ignorance.
Also, thank the football gods for getting it right, when the Athletic Department of UD could not. To paraphrase what Humphrey Bogart told Claude Rains in the movie Casablanca. This could be the beginning of a beautiful rivalry.

finally

Bonds soon to join Hall of Shame
By Michael Robinson

“Say it ain’t so Barry says it ain’t so!”. I don’t know if there will be a little kid standing at the steps of the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco uttering those words to Barry Bonds, when Bonds has his day in court. But the heartbreak and confusion of young Bond’s fans may be just as great as that young White Sox fan some 88 years ago. I know it’s just an indictment and Bonds has not been convicted of the charges he faces of lying under oath, about his knowledge of using performance enhancing drugs. But we all knew something was amiss when a player hits almost thirty more home runs (73) in a single season then he ever had, as Bonds did in 2002.
But if a kid doesn’t say it I will, “Say it ain't so Barry say it ain’t so; or maybe that was the problem, maybe he should have said so and come clean, taken his fine and suspension. Then come back to baseball free of any suspicion and rumors. I guess there in lies the problem, when you start with a little lie it grows into a bigger lie and then you can’t control it, or as my mother use to say “there is no such thing as a little lie”. I have nothing against Barry Bonds, from the day he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates I have followed his career with amazement. Even this indictment doesn’t diminish what I think of him as a player, I still believe him to be one of the top ten players of all time and certainly the greatest of the past 20 years . Alas, though we know deep down inside that Bonds and many others have lied in recent years about their use of performance enhancing drugs. But I am not here to talk about the others because frankly, I didn’t marvel at their play as I did with Bonds his unbelievable batters eye, his quick hands, and early in his career his great defense and speed on the bases. I don’t even believe steroids or any other performance enhancers made him a better player (if that were true everybody would just juice and be great), but the deception and half truths have made him a pariah, such as Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson before him, so instead of being the first ballot unanimous choice, Hall of Famer he should be, he may unfortunately join these former greats in baseball’s Hall of Shame.