/ARTS WEEKLY/SPORTS-U.S.: Black Athletes a Growing Presence in ‘White’ Sports

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Lakshmi Gandhi

NEW YORK, Jul 23 2002 (IPS) - Long seen as the private enclaves of middle-class Whites, sports like tennis, golf, hockey, and now soccer are slowly admitting Black athletes and fans alike.

The phenomenal success of Tiger Woods in golf, and Venus and Serena Williams in tennis, as well as lesser known players like soccer’s Cobi Jones and ice hockey’s Jarome Iginla, has prompted the sports to court a new, more diverse audience.

Willie O’Ree knows this is not always easy. Forty-four years after he broke hockey’s colour barrier – sometimes facing racist heckling on the ice – he continues to be an ambassador for the game.

O’Ree, who in 1958 became the first Black Canadian to play in the National Hockey League (NHL), is now the director of the NHL Diversity Task Force, which encourages young minority players to pursue hockey by supporting youth leagues across the country.

The former Boston Bruins player led the way for stars like Iginla, who is one of only 12 Blacks in the 650-player NHL. Last season, the Calgary Flames forward made history as the first Black player to score 50 goals.

Twelve Black players might not sound like many but it is a leap from the 18 Black players who reached the NHL between 1958 and 1991.

Athletes, coaches and other experts say the main barrier to sports like hockey, tennis, golf and soccer is socioeconomic. While most poor neighborhoods have access to a basketball court, full equipment packages for hockey, for example, cost hundreds of dollars.

In 1997, the NHL and USA Hockey, the sport’s national governing body, created the Used Equipment Bank, which encourages people to donate pucks, sticks, and skates to poor youths.

Soccer is a more egalitarian sport – evidenced by its massive popularity around the world – but minority kids in the United States still need encouragement to become interested.

“We need to reach out to the inner-city market,” says New York-New Jersey MetroStars goaltender Tim Howard, adding that the league needs to connect with African immigrants in particular. “The Africans are very exuberant, very passionate about soccer. We need to reach out to that market.”

An African American, Howard speaks with young soccer players often, answering questions about the game as well as about life. Howard says he was introduced to the sport as a child, “when my parents threw me into a rec (reational) league to get me out of the house”.

Howard is known for both his defensive skills and his off-the-field work raising awareness of Tourette’s Syndrome, with which he was diagnosed at age 11.

Named Major League Soccer’s player of the week for the week of Jun. 23, Howard has had two consecutive shutouts this season and 10 in total during his five seasons in the league. ‘Shutout’ is a North American term for a game in which a team is prevented from scoring.

Cobi Jones is widely acknowledged to be among the best U.S. soccer players in history, having set several records over the course of his 10-year career. With his charismatic personality and trademark dreadlocks, Jones is known equally for his image and his play on the past three World Cup teams.

The child of a Nigerian father and American mother, Jarome Iginla is quickly becoming the new face of the NHL.

Few Blacks played in the NHL when Iginla was growing up but he did have goalie Grant Fuhr, then with Iginla’s hometown Edmonton Oilers, to look up to.

“I remember saying, ‘Look, there are Black players, and Fuhr’s not just playing, he’s starting,” Iginla told the Washington Post. “I followed all the Black players. They made me believe that I could do it too, and I’m pretty aware of that with kids who see me now.”

The MetroStars’ Howard is also aware that children look up to him. Yet, he says, “I don’t try to be a role model. I try to lead the life that God wants me to lead and if other people want to model themselves after me, that is their choice.”

The NHL’s Diversity Task Force is just one example of a growing number of groups designed to bring new athletes and fans to sports that have not traditionally embraced, nor been embraced by, the African-American community.

The Task Force was created in 1994 and O’Ree has been involved since 1998, the 40th anniversary of his rookie season. The former player spends about 15 days a month visiting youth leagues and speaking to players.

Ice hockey’s Iginla, Anson Carter of the Edmonton Oilers and Manny Malhotra of the Dallas Stars, also visit youth teams. Malhotra’s parents are Canadian and Indian.

Major League Soccer and NHL officials say they hope that as talented minority players emerge and provide role models for future players, the sports’ fan base will grow and become more diverse.