There’s Something About Sports. - Holly Hess

Like any other dreary day in Athens, students walked about campus covered in rain coats and boasting their umbrellas. UGA’s Georgia Center was unusually crowded with students in the lobby, all drifting towards the tables of exquisitely prepared free food. Comments of approval could be heard pertaining to the teriyaki chicken and freshly made fruit punch. Students of all types gathered at 4 p.m. to hear a lecture titled: 'Sport: A Bridge Across the Racial Divide.’ As part of the Clifford Lewis Lecture series, Dr. Richard Lapchick came to share his expertise on sports issue sand racial inequalities within sports. Brendan Cosgrove, a junior broadcast news major commented on the issue at hand: “I’m fascinated by the racial dynamics in sports, especially the NBA. I’m interested to see what a professional’s take on the situation is.”
“Nigger lover, nigger lover” were some of the first words Lapchick heard describing his dad when he was only five years old. This was about the same time his love of basketball took hold. In 1950, Lapchick’s father, coach of the New York Knicks, signed three African -American players to his team making them the first team to sign athletes of color. After this incident, Lapchick moved with his mother and sister to Europe for a few years where they visited a Nazi concentration camp, a crucial point in his life. Somberly recalling that time, he mentioned, “I was never the same.” After seeing the cruelty of human kind, he went to Rome and saw how people from all over the world would join together because of one thing- sports. Lapchick quickly realized the avenue he needed to go through to bring all walks of life together. Instead of pursuing his love for basketball as a player, he became an expert on sports issues and a pioneer for racial equality through the use of sports.
“Everyone has a problem you don’t know about” is how he explained many of the tragedies mentioned. He took the audience back to a time in his daughter’s life when tragic incidents were happening daily. A close friend to the Lapchick’s family tied his own two kids to the car seat and waited to pull onto the interstate until a tractor-trailer came, ultimately killing himself and his own two children. Paired with this was a classmate’s suicide, a teacher’s death, an attempted murder, and a close friend’s father committing suicide into oncoming traffic. Not to mention the beginning of the week when his daughter was almost kidnapped by a naked man in a car. The crowd was heavy and somber after all of these horrible stories. But Lapchick’s point was simply this: there’s always going to be bad in the world. Everyone has power to influence, but how will we choose to use it?
Speaking as a writer for ESPN.com, creator of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida and the founder of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, Lapchick provided the audience hard evidence of white dominance behind the African-American athletes in the NBA. An astounding 91 percent of Division 1 basketball coaches are Caucasian males. Dissecting the different percentages between Caucasian and African-American coaches as well as the male to female coaches was mind boggling. Lapchick’s passion for finding equality in all areas of life was obvious.
“There’s something about sports” was repeated many times by Lapchick. He also made it clear many good people out there are doing things to help the world, specifically with regards to racial equality. However, he charged the students with, “Will it end, how will it end, and if it’s gonna end, what are you gonna do to help it?” Upon concluding his insight and opinions about racial discrimination, the audience appeared supportive of Lapchick’s lecture by giving him a warm, closing applause.