Clinton race forum focuses on sports

"It is important that people see that in athletics in America that the rules are fair, that people get their fair chance," Clinton said in leading off a 105-minute nationally televised discussion on the role of race in sports.

An avid fan of college basketball and major professional sports, Clinton is well versed in sensitive issues like white dominance in coaching and sports team ownership. He said that if professional sports wants more minority coaches but cannot find them, "then there's something wrong with recruitment."

The meeting, broadcast live on ESPN, was the second of Clinton's three planned nationally televised town hall meetings on race. The first was in Akron last December.

The 11-member panel discussed several topics but returned often to the relative shortage of minorities in top sports management jobs. Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson said blacks must be given more opportunities, even if they are not seen as sure-fire coaching successes right away.

"I'm sick of us having to be perfect to get the job," Thompson said. But Thompson took exception when former Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown also suggested that black college stars turn more often to black agents in launching their professional sports careers.

Joe Morgan, a member of baseball's Hall of Fame, said baseball has made only small progress.

While noting that some of the greatest players in baseball history are black, "once they're finished, there is no place for them to go" in the sport business, he said.

Morgan said baseball has failed to aggressively recruit talent in urban black areas. One reason for that, he said, is a lack of black scouts for major league teams.

Clinton said he was optimistic that talking about race in the context of sports can help the nation deal with broader racial issues.

"America, rightly or wrongly, is a sports crazy country," he said. "And we often see games as a metaphor or symbol of what we are as a people."

At the close of yesterday's program, Clinton said he hoped the message would get through to America's youth that athletics can help develop racial harmony.

"The lessons learned from athletics carry over into good citizenship, including attitudes about people of different races," Clinton said. "If that happens, we're going to be a lot better off."

Black men have found enormous success in American sports. Many of the best marketed and highest paid professional athletes, such as basketball's Michael Jordan and baseball's Ken Griffey Jr., are black. Yet certain glamour positions, such as quarterback in professional football, are dominated by whites.

were ineffective and inefficient. They just didn't deliver on their promises."

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