Is desegregation to blame for the declining fortunes of HBCU athletic programs? [Re: Post from the Native Son Blog]
[This is a reply to a reflective blog post from a friend regarding March Madness. If you haven’t already, take a look. It is more than interesting to follow his thought process as he ponders what life would be like at HBCUs if desegregation never happened. http://bit.ly/e5Z0ML]
This is a topic I have been thinking of extensively and I hope my (sure to be rambling) comments make some sense. While I do agree with your points, I don’t agree with your conclusion that desegregation robbed HBCUs of African-American talent. Either way, I wanted to add a few of my own thoughts, escape on a tangent and join you in your what-if’s. It should be noted, however, that the only sport I understand economically and athletically is basketball (though I was strangely a football player). Inasmuch my comments and examples reflect that.
In an argument like this, one must consider history; prior to desegregation, black colleges played a form of basketball that was much more entertaining and athletically challenging than that of their (white) counterpart institutions. A simple look at the Globetrotters and Cleveland Pipers- in comparison to the Minneapolis Lakers and St. Louis Hawks- reveals a distinct difference in playing style and philosophy. While frequently dismissed as playground ball, the “black” style of play would serve as the roadmap to the future of the league. In the documentary, “Black Magic,” Ben Jobe said of the frantic fast-breaking style seen at black colleges, “Duke did it, it was genius. We did it, it’s jungle ball.”
Unfortunately, these players often played in decrepit gyms with subpar equipment and nearly no great coaching/scouting/funding. It was untenable. [Aside: If I were less of a know it all, the reply would end here. However, I’m not one to take the easy way out. Inasmuch, I will ignore the fact that major sponsorship money never poured into black schools, likely never will, and I can’t see how it would have happened with segregation still the rule.] At a moment’s notice, the absolute best players and coaches bolted the black institutions and black communities to peddle their wares on the big stage. The money to be had in the negro leagues of basketball (thinking farm teams and Eastern League) was nowhere near that of the big leagues, which was also, admittedly, paltry. Black players in the minor leagues could only expect to play for pocket change, if they got payed at all (See: George Steinbrenner’s ownership of the Cleveland Pipers).
One can assume that because of this a lot of great players pursued the other options available to them (ever wondered about the Clipse line from Grinding, “The jewels is flirting me/damned if I’m hurting/legend in two games like I’m Pee Wee Kirkland.” Well, if you don’t know, Pee Wee Kirkland was Bubbachuck before he—Allen Iverson—was even a whisper. After starring for Norfolk State University, Kirkland got drafted into the NBA but turned down the offer to focus on drug dealing. He later dropped 135 points in a single game for his prison team in a local league.). Carrying that assumption further one only wonders how many great basketball MINDS were lost because of the poor conditions. John Chaney, for example, toiled in the Eastern League after an amazing career at Bethune-Cookman but ended up coaching at Temple, only now considered- nominally- a black school. Black players received subpar coaching in their community and either went to predominately white institutions—in the vain hope of acceptance—continued on to limited opportunities in black leagues, or simply left the idea of basketball as a career by the wayside. Another contributing factor is that most players who did make it out, and found favor in the white leagues didn’t turn around and return to black institutions or teams to provide quality coaching to those following them. With subpar coaching, skills never truly developed and players were simply athletes as opposed to basketball players. This served to further the odds of blacks from this time period making it to the League.
Pee Wee Kirkland Video Research by BHowards
[This goes on today and was especially prevalent during the preps to pros era of the NBA. Gerald Wallace and Jamario Moon are excellent examples; Moon was by all accounts the better player early on (both attended High School in Alabama). Somewhere in college, everything flipped. Wallace went to Alabama and received first class coaching whereas Moon went to community college and never progressed from an elite athletic specimen; Gerald Wallace is a former all-star. Coaching matters, the exodus of basketball minds (after discovering their options for a career in the sport were limited) hurt Negro schools more than anything and stymied generations of talent. At some point the basics at black institutions would have eroded to a point where the game truly did become analogous to playground basketball. A vicious cycle really.]
Meandering history lesson aside, one wonders what would have happened had not Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Sam Jones, and the fine men of UTEP, changed the game. Well, consider the origins of the game and socio-economic factors. Basketball is decidedly the most popular sport in poor American communities and for a lot of young people, it’s seen as a way out (Biggie, “Because the streets is a short stop/ Either you’re slinging crack, rock or you got a wicked jump shot.” Things done changed). Unfortunately, the highest paying jobs in professional basketball are decidedly limited (approximately 450). The odds of playing professional Basketball are long for anyone and I think as our generational wealth builds, African-Americans will turn away from the boom or bust mentality of chasing professional sports careers.
This has some basis in history as well, though basketball is a black sport now, once it was a Jewish one. In the mid 1930’s-when basketball as a career was gaining way, Jews ruled the game. Paul Gallico, author of the Poseidon Adventure, dropped this racist gem when describing the Jewish impact on basketball: “The reason, I suspect, that basketball appeals to the Hebrew with his Oriental background, is that the game places a premium on an alert, scheming mind, flashy trickiness, artful dodging and general smart aleckness.” Heck, where African-Americans had Pee-Wee Kirkland, Jews had Jackie Molinas (who there really ought be more books about). Molinas is regarded as one of the best to ever play the game, as well as one of the most successful liars, con men and cheats to ever rock high-tops. After he was expelled from the NBA for betting against his own team, Molinas began taking his gambling seriously and contrived devious schemes to up his own profits. Around this time he devised a particularly effective trick whereby he would reduce the electricity to whatever backroom betting parlor he would be attending that night; this had the effect of both darkening the room and stopping the clocks for a single minute, enabling Molinas to frantically run into the parlor and post a “late” bet after he had learned the results of the race or game. His most notorious contribution to basketball history, however, has to be his involvement with point shaving in college basketball which garnered him the ignominious title of Mephistoles of sport. Eric Konigsberg detailed Molinas’ antics while reviewing Charlie Rosen’s excellent book, The Wizard of Odds:
Between 1957 and 1961, he had no fewer than 27 collegiate programs in the bag, including St. John’s and the University of Alabama, and managed to rig the outcomes of at least 43 games, leading to the arrests of 37 players and the shaming of several others. The most notable casualty was Connie Hawkins, an inner-city Wunderkind who should have been the Julius Erving of his day but instead was sent home from the University of Iowa and spent his prime years banned from the National Basketball Association.
It should come as no surprise then that Molinas was killed, execution-style, in his home in an apparent mafia hit.
The point of it all is that wherever there are crowded inner-city slums and dreams of grand payouts, basketball will thrive. However, to expect HBCUs to have a monopoly on black talent ignores a great many variables which would have produced the same outcome (the declining athletic traditions at HBCUs) in the absence of desegregation. It just so happens that the one I chose is the rising economic fortunes of African-Americans. The change from Jewish to black was abrupt and was largely the result of changes in societal opinions towards people of Jewish descent as well as the ascent of the Jewish middle class. Simply put, for middle class Jewish kids, better (and more realistic) options than basketball opened to them. Soon, the same will be said of African-American youths.
