African American and NFL history was made twice recently, when the Minnesota Vikings chose Reggie Fowler to buy the team and become its CEO. Ten days before Fowler agreed to pay more than 600 million for the team, Fritz Pollard, the NFL's first black player and coach, was posthumously selected to enter the sport's hall of fame.
Today black men and women not only want to play for, coach or manage teams but they also want to hold executive roles in the operation of collegiate and professional sports. Robert Johnson leads the way as the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and the Charlotte Sting with Ed Tapscott running the franchises as president. Then there are rappers Jay-Z and Nelly and other African-American businesspeople with smaller stakes in other professional teams.
It was a painful season for the NBA, particuarly as its hip-hop generation emerges and changes the decorum of the league. But basketball, the "blackest" of pro sports, has at least seven African-American front-office team execs at or above the vice-president level. Four team presidents control everything from the locker toom to the boardroom. Although the fates of Terdema Ussery of the Dallas Mavericks, Billy King of the Philadelphia 76ers, Joe Dumars of the Detroit Pistons, Isiah Thomas of the New York Knicks and Ed Tapscott really takes place in the games not the corner offices.
If the shame of Division I football is that there are only three blacks among 117 coaches, the front offiices of NFL teams should share the embarassment. There is only one powerful black NFL team executive: Ozzie Newsome, general manager of the Baltimore Ravens. That means he can even hire or fire the coach. Among decision makers who affect collegiate players, two names stand out. There are seven black Divison I athletic directors, but there is only one Mike Garrett. He hired Pete Carroll, who isn't black, to mold the University of Southern California's football team into a two-time national collegiate football champion. And January2005, USC's African-American host at the FedEx Orange Bowl was Keith Tribble, the CEO of the Orange Bowl Committee.
As for Major League Baseball, the sport remains a puzzle. While there are declining numbers of African-American players, two blacks work near the league's summit. Jimmie Lee Solomon Jr. may not be West Indian, as the popular stereotype goes, but he juggles four jobs under the title of SVP of Baseball Operations. He enforces league rules, oversees the minor leagues, supports inner city baseball and runs MLB's Scouting Bureau.
It was learned in the words of late political agitator's credo "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." This should inspire would-be and current African-American sports executives to never give up.
Today black men and women not only want to play for, coach or manage teams but they also want to hold executive roles in the operation of collegiate and professional sports. Robert Johnson leads the way as the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and the Charlotte Sting with Ed Tapscott running the franchises as president. Then there are rappers Jay-Z and Nelly and other African-American businesspeople with smaller stakes in other professional teams.
It was a painful season for the NBA, particuarly as its hip-hop generation emerges and changes the decorum of the league. But basketball, the "blackest" of pro sports, has at least seven African-American front-office team execs at or above the vice-president level. Four team presidents control everything from the locker toom to the boardroom. Although the fates of Terdema Ussery of the Dallas Mavericks, Billy King of the Philadelphia 76ers, Joe Dumars of the Detroit Pistons, Isiah Thomas of the New York Knicks and Ed Tapscott really takes place in the games not the corner offices.
If the shame of Division I football is that there are only three blacks among 117 coaches, the front offiices of NFL teams should share the embarassment. There is only one powerful black NFL team executive: Ozzie Newsome, general manager of the Baltimore Ravens. That means he can even hire or fire the coach. Among decision makers who affect collegiate players, two names stand out. There are seven black Divison I athletic directors, but there is only one Mike Garrett. He hired Pete Carroll, who isn't black, to mold the University of Southern California's football team into a two-time national collegiate football champion. And January2005, USC's African-American host at the FedEx Orange Bowl was Keith Tribble, the CEO of the Orange Bowl Committee.
As for Major League Baseball, the sport remains a puzzle. While there are declining numbers of African-American players, two blacks work near the league's summit. Jimmie Lee Solomon Jr. may not be West Indian, as the popular stereotype goes, but he juggles four jobs under the title of SVP of Baseball Operations. He enforces league rules, oversees the minor leagues, supports inner city baseball and runs MLB's Scouting Bureau.
It was learned in the words of late political agitator's credo "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." This should inspire would-be and current African-American sports executives to never give up.
