BLACk COLLEGE
Sports Review
MARCH 1993
EDITOR ft PUBLISHER
Ernest H. Pitt
PRODUCTION
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STAFF WRITERS
Barry Cooper
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PHOTOGRAPHERS
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Black College
Athletes Can Play
Last month's Sheridan Black College All-American
Weekend drove home a point that has always been clear.
Football players from black colleges can and do play in
the NFL. Somehow, over the years many black athletes have
been brainwashed into thinking that the road to the NFL and
successful lives goes through the Notre Dame, Alabamas,
Georgias, Floridas, and Miamis; that playing at schools who
have 100,000- seat stadiums will get them to the pros; that i
playing on TV every week and getting their names in the j
newspapers is their ticket to a professional career.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. There are no
shortcuts, and the road to the NhL does detour around black '
colleges. If you can play, it doesn't matter if you attend Flori
da A&M or Texas A&M. Seeing the likes of L.C. Green
wood, Jackie Slater, Willie Davis, Rayfield Wright, Mel
Blount, and other members of the 100 Year All-Black College
team was a reminder of that.
The men chosen to that team are some of the greatest ath
letes who've ever played footbaH, not just at black colleges
but at any level. Many of them changed the way we define
greatness.
For years, Jim Brown was the yardstick by which all run
ning backs were measured, then it was O. J. Simpson. Cur
rently it's Walter Payton, who played in relative obscurity at
Jackson State but it is now known around the world and is the
NFL career rushing leader.
Arguably, no defensive players has had a more dramatic
impact on football than David "Deacon" Jones, who played
three seasons at South Carolina State and one at Mississippi
Vocational (now Mississippi Valley State). He coined .the
term quarterback sack and introduced and refined the head
slap, a move so devastating that it has been outlawed.
Where you come from doesn't determine where you're
going. But too many young black athlete's - and their parents
- don't understand that They're too busy chasing the fools' j
gold that the big white schools dangle before during the
recruiting process. This is not to say that it is wrong for black
athletes to attend large schools^ But they should make sure i_
they aren't attending them for the wrong reasons.
It seems as though every other week we hear about a for
mer athlete from one of these schools who is spilling his guts
about under-the-table cash, cars and doctored grades. In 10
cases out of 10, it's black athletes who are doing the talking.
They chose their school for the wrong reason. Invariably, they
got the money; they got the car; they played in front of the big
crowds and on TV for four years. But at the end of four years,
they didn't get a pro career or a degree. Meanwhile, they see
their white teammates - who in many instances were less tal
ented and played a less significant role in the team's success -
graduate and get a good paying job.
They're left bitter and feeling betrayed.
Black colleges have their problems too. But the blatant
exploitation of athletes isn't among them. If it were, Lem Bar- .
ney, Doug Williams, Tank Younger and Donnie Shell
wouldn't speak in such glowing terms about their experiences i
at those schools and how they helped them develep into out
standing football players and even more outstanding men.
? Roscoe Nance
Black College Sports Review is published by Black Sports Inc . 617 N. Liberty Si..
Winston-Salem, N C 27102. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs wil not be
returned. Inquiries should be addiessed to Ernest H Pitt, Publisher. Black Cotsge
Sports Review, P O Bo* 1636, Winston-Salem, N. C 27102
PHOTO CREDITS: Cover story photo by Bernard Thomas Others are Wade Nash,
Joe Daniels and Mark QaN
BCSR is a supplement to these newspapers: Atlanta Voice. The Butetin, Baltimore
AtroAmerican. Baton Rouge Community Leader, Birmingham Times, Carolina Peace- j
maker, Carofna Times. Charleston Chronicle. DaMas Examiner. keden County New s.
Metro County Courier, Philadelphia Tribune. Pittsburgh Courier. Richmond Afro-Amer
ican. Washington Afro- American and the Winston-Saiem Chronicle
Commentary, Letters ? .
CI A A Tou rney G reat... B ut...
More than 1 1 >000 sophisticated fans jammed the Richmond Coliseum to see the ClAA Tourna
ment. The event will be in Winston-Salem, N.C. next year.
RICHMOND - The CIAA Tournament again
showed why it's one of the best in the nation when it
was held here the last week of February.
The tournament is like a black Mardi Gras, a party
of fashion; furraraHtufic.
Oh, and the basketball is good.
But there was one problem with the tournament.
The tnen'^ championship game, a dramatic affair won by
Virginia Union over N.C. Central, started too late.
The game began at 10 p.m. and ended just before
midnight.
If you weren't in Richmond's Coliseum that night
or happened to be watching the live broadcast that was
available in some, not all markets, you didn't know who
won.
Television newscasts couldn't gelt he score in dur
ing their 1 1 p.m. show. Many newspapers have final
deadlines of about 12:15 on Saturday nights for Sundays
editions, so very few media outlets were able to get the
score out to readers or viewers.
And4n this way, the conferencc did itself a disser
vice.
Not because the media room became a placc for
writers and television broadcasts to vent to one another
about why the game was starting late, but because lots of
people who were reading about the tournament - people
who might've been new to the CIAA - couldn't follow
the tournament to its conclusion.
The problem was the television contract the CIAA
arranged with Sun Belt Video of Charlotte.
Sun Belt put together a wonderful television pack
age that would beam the CIAA to a potential audience of
more than 40 million viewers practically nationwide.
But more than half of the stations carrying their feed
would be showing the tournament finals on a delayed
basis. That included Charlotte, which is the largest mar
ket where a CIA.A team is located. Normally, a late
game would begin at 9 p.m., and for several years. Black
Entertainment Television began televising the CIAA
men's final at 9 p.m. That time allows T.V. and print
media to get the scores out to the masses. But Sun Belt
scheduled the game for 9:30 p.m. and the CIAA agreed.
Then, the women's final, which began at 6 p.m.
wasn't over until about 8:15. Sun Belt began showing
the women's final at 7:30 and therefore couldn't begin
televising the men's game until at least 9:45. Michael
Covington, producer of the event for Sun Belt, refused to
comment onthc matter, but a Sun Belt official was asked
if the women's game could somehow he sped up - per
haps by deleting the halftime portion of the show - but
the official said: "No, this game must be shown as if it's
happening live."
So CIAA commissioner Leon Kerry met with Vir
ginia^.Union coach Dave Robbins and Central coach
Greg Jackson and told them that the game would start at
10 p.m. ?
The Richmond Coliseum had to be cleared after the
women's final, and fans thinking the men's game started
at 9:30 began arriving as early as 8:30. They couldn't get
in. Some fans said they had to wait outside, in snow and
sub-3Q degree temperatures. Some waited ax much as an
hour.
Things happen, games run over and all of that. And
Sun Belt did a top notch job of broadcasting the games,
the best in recent memory.
But next year guys, let's start at 9, OK?
It'd make a lot of people happy.
Roosevelt Brown Should
Have Been Among Them
Dear Sir,
I realize the sclcciion of any all-star team isn't going
to satisfy everyone; it is. your selection, however there
arc a few I feci should have been given some considera
tion.
One is Roosevelt Brown, an All C1AA and All
Black College tacklc for Morgan State in 1952 under the
legendary Eddie Hurt.
Brown went on to achieve All-Pro Honors with the
New York Giants and is now in the Pro Football Hall of
Fame.
Others are Roger Brown and Johnny Sample of
Maryland State, both of whom went on to achieve All
Pro honors in the NFL. Oh yes, what about Willie
Richardson of Jackson State, another who went on to
stardom in the NFL.
There arc a few others, but these players, especially
Roosevelt Brown, should have been considered.
John Scott