Dennis Brutus died in his sleep Saturday in Cape Town, South Africa, at age 85. Between the early 1960s and the end of apartheid in South Africa, the architects of that most racist regime rarely slept, due to the force of major activists such as Brutus.

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AFP/Getty ImagesDennis Brutus, who died Saturday, recognized and channeled the power of sport in the fight against apartheid.

He was a renowned poet, but I knew Dennis as a freedom fighter who used sport as his weapon. In the course of our first meeting 40 years ago, Dennis Brutus changed my life.

Before Muhammad Ali had to fight for his title in the courts, before Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists at the Mexico City Olympics, before Bill Russell wrote "Go Up for Glory," before Billie Jean King served and scored for an entire gender, Brutus saw the power sport had to change society. He might have been the first sports social activist as he led the sports boycott of South Africa after escaping into exile in 1965.

"Invictus," the new Clint Eastwood film starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, is giving the world a glimpse of life in apartheid South Africa. Under apartheid from 1948 to 1990, the less than 20 percent of South Africans who were white completely controlled the more than 80 percent who were black, "colored" (of mixed racial ancestry) or Indian.

People of color could not vote, own land, live where they wanted, move freely about the country or send their children to a decent school. Education prepared children solely to serve white people or the white economy. People of color could work only in the mines, on farms, in factories or as domestic servants.

To this day, it was the only regime that the world came together to isolate in peacetime. There were oil, trade, bank loan and sports boycotts. Oil can be smuggled and trade restrictions circumvented. Some banks made loans that kept the regime afloat. But there is no black market for games, and the sports boycott became South Africa's Achilles' heel.

Ironically, "Invictus" shows the power of sport to heal. President Mandela knew how the boycott of South African sport helped lead to his release from 27 years of imprisonment on Robben Island and to the collapse of apartheid, and he channeled that power to bring together post-apartheid South Africa, rallying the nation around the 1995 Rugby World Cup even though rugby was an almost-all-white sport.

Brutus was actively involved in the South African Sports Association, which was a non-racial answer to all-white sports governing bodies. "Non-whites" could not represent the country on national or international teams. SASA was raising its voice to get South Africa banned from international sports competition when Brutus was arrested for his role in 1963.

He escaped police custody and tried to flee the country by bus, but the driver forced him off. A policeman shot him in the stomach and left him bleeding on the pavement. A "Whites Only" ambulance came to get him, but when the medics saw that Brutus was "colored," they left him bleeding. He was sentenced to 18 months on Robben Island, where he served time with Mandela.

The international publicity surrounding his case helped awaken the world of sport to apartheid, and South Africa was suspended from the Olympics in 1964 and eventually thrown out of the International Olympic Committee in 1970. By then, Brutus was in exile in London, where he helped found the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee, which led the international fight to completely isolate South Africa in sport. The only remaining major countries that would allow competition with South Africa were Britain, France, New Zealand, Australia and, finally, the United States.

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AP Photo/Lana HarrisArthur Ashe was arrested in 1985 for protesting outside the South African embassy.

Brutus came to the United States 40 years ago as a visiting poet at the University of Denver, where I was a graduate student focusing on international race relations. I met him at a Friday evening reception held for him by George Shepherd, my dissertation chairman.

My two main passions were sports and fighting racism, but before meeting Brutus, I had not seen a way to combine the two. I went home and wrote a new proposal. I now wanted to study the effects of apartheid in sport in South Africa and the international response, comparing that to the Nazis in Germany, the Berlin Olympics and that international response. I did not sleep for two days. My original dissertation proposal on the racial factor in American foreign policy took six months to write and get approved. This one took three days to write and was approved that week by my committee, which eventually included Brutus.

That dissertation was published as a book in 1975, and Brutus encouraged me to found the American Coordinating Committee for Equality in Sport and Society in 1976. ACCESS became the coalition of United States-based groups boycotting South African sports teams. He was a professor at Northwestern at the time, and together we helped stage the first American sports protest against South Africa at the U.S. Open in Forest Hills, N.Y., in 1977. It was there that Arthur Ashe announced he was supporting the boycott after advocating sports contacts with South Africa for the previous few years.

Americans knew little about apartheid, and the American movement was small. Only 75 people demonstrated at that U.S. Open, but it put apartheid on the sports pages, and people in the U.S. began to learn about events such as the June 1976 Soweto uprising, in which more than 600 black school children were gunned down by the South African police, and the September 1977 murder in police custody of Steve Biko, the leader of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement. On the sports pages!

In March 1978, the South African Davis Cup team was scheduled to play in the U.S. In early February, I went to Nashville, Tenn., to try to get the matches there canceled. When I returned home to Virginia, I was attacked in my college office late at night by two masked men. I sustained liver and kidney damage and a concussion, and "niger" (sic) was carved in my stomach with a pair of office scissors. Brutus was the first person who was called when I was hospitalized. As always, he was ready to support me and anyone who would fight the apartheid regime.

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AP Photo/New Zealand HeraldApartheid protesters took to the field before a 1981 Springbok-Waikato game in New Zealand.

But his focus was sharp and pointed: The demonstrations against the South African team had to be mounted. This time, more than 2,500 people demonstrated outside the matches versus only 500 spectators inside the stadium. Brutus, who spoke with the fire of a fighter but with the eloquence of the poet he was, portrayed the evils of apartheid for the crowd. Few could have done it better.

We worked side by side for more than two decades until the end of apartheid. Along with writer Bob Lipsyte, Dean Richard Astro and myself, Brutus was part of the team that founded Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society in 1984. Together, we won the Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award from Tufts University in 2000. It was the last time I saw him, as he lived his last years in his beloved South Africa. Knowing he was gravely ill, I reached out to him a few weeks ago to remind him of what he meant to me.

I was invited by Mandela to his inauguration in May 1994. After the inauguration, instead of attending the diplomatic parties in Pretoria, he flew by helicopter to Johannesburg to watch a soccer match between South Africa and Zambia. In his box at the game, I asked him, "Mr. President, why did you come here and not go to the parties being held in your honor?" His response was clear: "I wanted my people to know that I became president sooner because of the sacrifices made by our athletes during the years of the boycott."

I am sure that day the president already was thinking of what could be done with the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He knew the power of sport to affect social change. Few have used it better than Dennis Brutus.

My life was forever changed by knowing him.

One year ago this week, I wrote that we needed a civil rights movement in college football. As of Dec. 8, 2008, there were four African-American coaches left in the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision), the lowest number in 15 years. African-American coaches at Kansas State, Washington and Mississippi State had just lost their jobs. Late in the 2008 hiring process, African-American coaches were hired at New Mexico, New Mexico State and Eastern Michigan -- but those additions hardly made up for the losses at Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC schools. Randy Shannon at Miami (Fla.) was the only African-American BCS conference coach left.

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Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesCharlie Strong had great success as Florida's defensive coordinator -- now he's the head coach at a BCS school, Louisville.

Now, with Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong being introduced as Louisville's new football coach on Wednesday afternoon, everything has changed. With several coaching positions remaining to be filled, there are 11 African-American head coaches, and 13 coaches of color among the 120 FBS schools. That is four more than the previous high in the history of college football. And, most importantly, there are again more coaches of color in the BCS conferences, with Strong in the Big East and Mike London in the ACC at Virginia. Plus, Turner Gill is a serious candidate for a job in the Big 12, at Kansas.

The pressure exerted by the Black Coaches & Administrators (BCA), the NCAA under the late Myles Brand, and others has escalated in the past year. With the BCA's support, I have been calling for an Eddie Robinson Rule -- named after the legendary former Grambling State coach -- which would require colleges to include candidates of color in the hiring process. This year, the state of Oregon passed House Bill 3118, which adopted such a rule for all state colleges and universities. Now, up to eight other states are going to consider such legislation. The BCA is also seriously looking at initiating Title VII civil rights lawsuits against schools. That still may be necessary.

In the 2008 hiring cycle, the process seemed more open than in years past. In terms of the FBS schools, a healthy percentage of people of color were considered by search committees and interviewed. Overall, 27 percent of the candidates considered by search committees for FBS open positions were people of color, and 29 percent of the 122 candidates interviewed for FBS open positions were candidates of color. The result was that, with nine holding head-coaching jobs, there were more coaches of color in the 2009 season than in any previous season. That's an improvement -- but nine out of 120 is still a very small percentage, especially when you consider that more than 50 percent of the football student-athletes at FBS schools are African-American.

BCA executive director Floyd Keith told me on Wednesday, "Yes, you could say that nine head coaches was an improvement, but we need coaches in the BCS schools. I am going to be at the announcement of Charlie Strong's hiring today because of the importance of where he is being hired, at a Big East school. UVa's hiring of Mike London earlier this week was just as important. We've never had two BCS conference schools hire an African-American coach in a single week. This week is historic."

In addition to the extra pressure for change, two other critical things happened this season. First of all, three coaches of color had very successful years -- Randy Shannon led Miami to the Champs Sports Bowl, Ken Niumatalolo helped get Navy to the Texas Bowl, and Kevin Sumlin coached Houston to the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. This is the first time three coaches of color will have their teams in FBS bowl games in a single year.

Secondly, college football finally had a hugely successful African-American coach speak out and push for more opportunities for coaches of color. Ironically, it was a recently retired NFL coach who stepped up. Tony Dungy, the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl, has been very outspoken this year in appearances across the nation. Dungy isn't just asking for any jobs for African-American coaches. His aim is jobs in the top conferences: the ACC, SEC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10. For years, I've been saying that African-American football coaches need advocates like African-American basketball coaches had with John Thompson, John Chaney and Nolan Richardson. Those three stood up for change in the 1980s, and now we barely notice when African-American coaches are hired or fired in college basketball. Overall, 23 percent of Division I college basketball coaches were African-American in the 2008-09 season. Dungy, so widely respected, has been the perfect voice.

In addition, perhaps there has been an Obama effect, too. All year long, Charlotte Westerhaus, the NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion, Floyd Keith and I have pointed out that we have an African-American president while simultaneously having such a poor record in terms of hiring minority football coaches.

After Wednesday's news conference at Louisville, the FBS will have recently added four new African-American head coaches in Willie Taggart at Western Kentucky, Larry Porter at Memphis, London at UVa and Strong at Louisville. Keith said, "This is a proud moment for us. I honestly think the game may have forever changed this week. And don't forget that Kentucky and Maryland have named Joker Phillips and James Franklin as 'coaches-in-waiting.' But we need to keep up the pressure so we don't slide back. We are witnessing history in the making but we need to keep making history."

All of this has made me think back to 1997, when I first met Eddie Robinson and started helping him co-author his autobiography. We talked about the fact that there were only eight African-American college football coaches at the time. We discussed how Robinson, who was then the winningest coach in college football history, had never even been asked to interview at a Division I-A (now FBS) school.

When I spoke at Robinson's funeral in 2007, I sadly told the audience of 9,000 people that Robinson passed away at a time when there were only six African-American college football coaches. And I promised his family, and all those who were there, that we would increase the pressure for change. Now, only two years later, I am confident that Coach Rob is looking down on the announcement of Charlie Strong's hiring, and there being 13 college football coaches of color, with a well-earned smile.

Coach Robinson helped pave the way for others to join the battle, leading to a man like Tony Dungy getting such a platform that he, Floyd Keith and others could be game-changers. This is a huge day. But we all know that the game is not finished, there is more work to be done.

It is still hard to believe that Myles Brand is no longer with us. We all lost a warrior for student athletes, Title IX and civil rights in sports. On Wednesday, thousands will gather in Indianapolis to pay tribute to his life and achievements. I am sure that many will speak of the difference he made in having college sport live up to its ideals.

There has been much speculation in the media about the process to choose his successor. Many, including myself, wonder how we can fill the shoes of such a giant. It would be a tribute to Myles if the process were as open and inclusive as possible. He would want the interviewing committee as well as the individuals under consideration to be inclusive. I state this with certainty because he was responsible for the creation of the Office for Diversity and Inclusion and for many initiatives that led to more opportunities for women and people of color.

I write this on the same day I received the news that our first African-American president was chosen as the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Our first Hispanic Supreme Court justice was recently sworn in. I hope that it will become clear that such opportunities also exist for the next NCAA president. This is not to say that I hope that the NCAA will choose an African-American, Hispanic, Asian or American Indian president, or a female one, but I hope it will include the best pool of candidates, including people of color and women.

Myles Brand was responsible for NCAA
initiatives that helped women and
people of color.

BY THE NUMBERS
24.8
Percentage of African-American Division I male student athletes
15.4
Percentage of African-American Division I female student athletes
100
Percentage of BCS conference commissioners who are white men
100
Percentage of Division I conference commissioners who are white (excluding conferences representing historically black colleges and universities)
Percentage of selected athletic department positions held by whites
	Division
Positions	I	II	III
Men’s coaches	91%	90%	93%
Women’s coaches	90	90	93
Athletic directors	93	92	96
Faculty athletic reps	92	92	96
Sr. women admin.	84	91	96
Associate ADs	90	94	95
Percentage of selected athletic department positions held by African-Americans
	Division
Positions	I	II	III
Men’s coaches	7%	4%	4%
Women’s coaches	6	4	4
Athletic directors	5.5	4	2
Associate ADs	8	4	4
Percentage of selected athletic department positions held by women
	Division
Positions	I	II	III
Athletic directors	8%	13%	27%
Associate ADs	28	49	50
Source: Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida

This would be a tribute to Myles Brand and an important statement to our student athletes on campus, and especially to the student athletes of color in revenue-producing sports. Just as African-American children across America now believe there is a possibility of becoming president of the United States, it would be a great signal to student athletes to see people who look like them being considered for the NCAA presidency and perhaps even being chosen.

The racial composition of conference and athletic department leaders does not reflect the diversity of our student athletes. In addition to having this process be inclusive from start to finish, we also encourage those on college campuses to hold open hiring practices for coaches, athletic directors and other important positions in college sport. The current racial makeup of those positions of leadership tells a one-sided story (see chart). Thus, a diverse pool of candidates for the new NCAA president would be extremely important.

I would take this a step further and highlight a single individual as somebody who I think would be a spectacular and principled leader of the NCAA.

Bernard Franklin, executive vice president at the NCAA, established himself as Brand’s trusted ally. Before that he served as president of Virginia Union University in Richmond, Va., and also served as president of Saint Augustine’s College in Raleigh. Franklin has the respect of people in academia as well as those in athletics.

Bernard Franklin was a person who Myles told me “always got the job done” at the NCAA. He oversees the largest administrative area at the NCAA, which includes membership and academic affairs, governance, educational affairs, research, and diversity and inclusion. He has had his hand in almost all major aspects of the NCAA. He also was the liaison between Myles Brand and the Executive Committee.

Myles told me that he appreciated Bernard even more because Bernard never needed the limelight and was someone who would never seek public credit for his work. I invited Bernard to speak at a function soon after he joined the NCAA. I was moved by his eloquence and passion. I have heard him speak several times since then, and he is a captivating speaker.

Several years ago I was meeting with Bernard in Myles’ office before the NCAA announced its decision to get involved with the Native American mascot issue. They told me their plan and asked my opinion, and Myles said he was having Bernard take the lead on this, contrary to his more common behind-the-scenes profile. He became the public face of the issue, which proved to be one of the most controversial policies that the NCAA implemented during the Brand tenure. Bernard handled it with great skill and was often able to bring what appeared to be polar opposite sides together to successfully resolve most of the cases that involved such passion and history on the different university campuses.

So as we continue to reflect on the life and accomplishments of Myles Brand, particularly during his time as NCAA president, let us pay further tribute to him and honor the processes that he treasured by holding an inclusive search process. I also have my hopes high that his friend and trusted colleague, Bernard Franklin, will become the next NCAA president.

Jets' Sanchez might bring light to the overlooked history of Hispanics in pro football.

The New York Jets are off to a 3-0 start and the media is in a frenzy over quarterback Mark Sanchez, especially after he outgunned superhero Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Week 2 of the NFL season.

Less noticed, though, is Sanchez's presence among the less than 1 percent of NFL players who are of Latino background. Their numbers are growing, but those players remain mainly off the radar screen.

So does the history of Latinos in the NFL, despite the fact that many broke through with landmark achievements in the league well in advance of African-Americans. For example:

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AP Photo/Bill KostrounMark Sanchez is a sensation in New York after his fast start with the Jets.

• Joe Aguirre became the first Latino drafted by an NFL team when the Washington Redskins chose him in the 11th round in 1941, five years before Kenny Washington and Woody Strode became the first African-American players in the modern era of the NFL.
• Jim Plunkett was a Latino quarterback who won Super Bowl XV for the Oakland Raiders in January of 1981, seven years before Doug Williams became the first African-American quarterback to win one.
• Tom Fears became the first Latino head coach when the expansion New Orleans Saints hired him in 1967, more than two decades before Art Shell became the first African-American head coach with the Raiders in 1989.
• And with Plunkett calling the signals, Tom Flores coached the Raiders to their Super Bowl XV championship, 26 years before Tony Dungy became the first African-American head coach to win the big one.

While many can name those first African-Americans, few can cite the names of the first Latinos in each category.

But when Sanchez was thrust into the spotlight as the starting quarterback for the University of Southern California in his junior year, he immediately became a role model for many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in Southern California and around the country. He is proud of his heritage, and wore a mouthpiece with a small Mexican flag painted on the front in a game against Notre Dame. His fans reveled in the shared pride.

Nonetheless, Sanchez received a number of angry e-mails and letters after that Notre Dame game, telling him, among other things, to go back to Mexico, according to the Los Angeles Times. It had an echo in the African-American community, when so many athletes were told to "go back to Africa," even when generations had passed since anyone in their families had set foot in Africa.

Sanchez was born in the United States and has two older brothers who played football at Yale and DePauw. Their heritage was never a topic of controversy at those places, but their public exposure never rose to the level that Mark's did. Nor did they flash their ethnic pride on a national stage.

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George Rose/Getty ImagesTom Flores was the first minority coach to win a Super Bowl, and the first Latino quarterback in pro football history.

Sanchez starred in the Los Angeles spotlight and finished at USC with a 2009 Rose Bowl victory over Penn State. He was picked fifth in the 2009 NFL draft by the Jets and ultimately was named the starting quarterback. It is a heady time for Sanchez, as he joins an impressive list of Latino quarterbacks in the NFL, including Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys and Jeff Garcia of the Philadelphia Eagles, both of Mexican descent.

Flores became the first Latino quarterback in pro football history two years after he finished playing in college, when he joined the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League in 1960. Flores immediately led the league by completing 54 percent of his passes, gaining 1,738 yards and throwing for 12 touchdowns. Flores' best season was in 1966 when he passed for 2,638 yards and 24 touchdowns in 14 games, earning him a Pro Bowl slot.

Oakland traded him to the Buffalo Bills in 1967, where he was primarily a backup. He ended his playing career with Kansas City in 1970, the year the Chiefs won Super Bowl IV behind starting quarterback Len Dawson.

When Flores retired as a player, he became an assistant coach, and finally succeeded John Madden as the Raiders' head coach in 1979, finishing his first season with a 9-7 record.

He made coaching history in his second year. After finishing the regular season at 11-5, Flores and the Raiders' Mexican-American quarterback Plunkett captured the franchise's third Super Bowl. By defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 in Super Bowl XV in 1981, Flores became the first minority head coach to win a Super Bowl and Plunkett became the first minority quarterback to win one.

That duo won a second championship in Super Bowl XVIII over the Washington Redskins. Flores went on to coach the Raiders for a total of nine seasons, amassing a regular-season record of 83-53 and winning two Super Bowl rings.

A 6-foot-7 linebacker, Guatemalan Ted Hendricks was one of the most dominant defensive forces in the NFL history. He was a Pro Bowl selection eight times and played on four Super Bowl championship teams, three with Oakland and one with the Baltimore Colts. Hendricks is a member of the NFL's 1970s All-Decade Team and the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. In 1990, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Joe Kapp made headlines on and off the field. By standing up to the NFL in an antitrust case, he helped future generations of players earn far more than they made during his career.

In 1969, following a very successful career in the Canadian Football League, Kapp led the Minnesota Vikings to Super Bowl IV to play the Chiefs. A headline in Sports Illustrated in 1970 called him "The Toughest Chicano." When he signed a four-year contract with the Boston Patriots, Kapp became the highest-paid player in the NFL.

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AP PhotoJoe Kapp excelled on the field, and stood up to the mighty NFL off it.

Later, though, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle demanded that he sign a standard player contract. Kapp refused based on the recommendations of his lawyer and the NFL Players Association. As a result, his 12-year career as a professional football player ended in 1971. However, his NFL journey continued with the antitrust lawsuit against the league, claiming its standard contract was unconstitutional and a restraint of trade.

In 1974, a federal judge agreed that the NFL had violated antitrust laws, in part because there was no collective bargaining agreement in place on the date in question. The NFL settled with the Players Association in a multimillion-dollar case. The old system died and was replaced, and NFL players were the big winners. While Kapp was not awarded any personal damages, he won the respect of a generation of players.

Kapp broke more ground when returned to Cal-Berkeley, his alma mater, in 1982, becoming the first Latino head coach in Division IA football. He was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year that season, 24 years after he led them to the league championship as a player in 1958.

Arguably the most well-known Latino football player is offensive lineman Anthony Muñoz. Muñoz played in two Super Bowls and was an 11-time Pro Bowl selection, as well as the offensive lineman of the year in 1981, '87 and '88. In 1994, he was one of three offensive tackles named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team.

When Muñoz was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1998, it was widely reported that he was the first Latino to be inducted into the Hall. In fact, Muñoz had joined three other Latino Hall of Fame members. That is a testament to the poor attention being paid to the heritage of Latino athletes at the time.

The first Latino to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame was Honduran-born Steve Van Buren. Van Buren was orphaned when he was very young and was raised by his grandparents in New Orleans. He earned a scholarship to play at Louisiana State and was a first-round draft pick in 1944.

Van Buren twice rushed for more than 1,000 yards, won four NFL rushing titles and a "triple crown" in 1945 when he led the league in rushing, scoring and kickoff returns. He was a first-team All-NFL selection in each of his first six seasons. From 1947 through '49, Van Buren won three consecutive rushing titles, an accomplishment matched only by Jim Brown, Earl Campbell and Emmitt Smith. At his retirement after the 1951 season, Van Buren held the all-time record for rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.

The second was Fears, who went into the Hall of Fame in 1970, nearly 30 years before Muñoz was elected. Fears was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and moved to the United States at the age of 6. His college career was interrupted by a stint in the Air Force during World War II. Upon leaving the military, he finished his college career at UCLA. Originally drafted as a defensive back by the Los Angeles Rams, he was switched to the offense after he intercepted two passes and returned one for a touchdown in his first game.

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George Rose/Getty ImagesAnthony Munoz made the Pro Bowl 11 times. No wonder he's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Fears led the league in receptions in his first three NFL seasons, improving his total each year, setting a league record with 77 catches in 1949 and breaking that mark the following year with 84 receptions. In his nine NFL seasons, Fears totaled 400 career receptions for 5,397 yards and 38 touchdowns. Those were almost unheard-of numbers at the time. He had more than 1,000 receiving yards in two seasons and played in a Pro Bowl.

Fears served as head coach of the Saints from 1967 to 1970, becoming the first Latino head coach in the NFL. He was fired after compiling a 13-34-2 overall record, but his mark had been made.

Hendricks, who was inducted in 1990, was the third Latino in the Hall of Fame.

Now, as Sanchez is emerging as a leader for the next generation of Latinos in the NFL, he can look back on the legacy of those who came before him. Sanchez is among a talented group of current Latinos that includes punter Daniel Sepuveda, guards Roberto Garza and Louis Vasquez, defensive end Luis Castillo, wide receivers Anthony Gonzalez and Greg Camarillo and long snapper Ken Amato.

On Dec. 20, Sanchez and the Jets will welcome the Atlanta Falcons and fellow Latino Tony Gonzalez to Giants Stadium. A 10-time Pro Bowl selection, González is arguably the greatest tight end in NFL history and figures to be the fifth Latino to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

It is obviously too early to call it, but perhaps Sanchez is taking his first steps toward that sort of career this season. Maybe his journey in the NFL will help shed more light on those Latinos who broke barriers without the recognition of their heritage.

ESPN Video: NCAA President Brand Dies at 67 

Myles Brand didn't win 'em all, but he championed the ideals of college athletics

America lost a champion for student-athletes, for Title IX and for civil rights in sports with the passing of Dr. Myles Brand on Wednesday. No one did more to make college sport live up to its ideals. We knew he'd been fighting deadly pancreatic cancer since January, but no one was ready when the announcement of his passing came.

Like many others, I lost a hero and a friend.

Brand was a philosopher who will be remembered for his eloquence and for his fight for justice in sport, especially regarding graduation rates, gender equity, and diversity and inclusion.

I had been involved in efforts to improve graduation rates for student-athletes beginning in the late 1980s, but there was little movement until Brand, who became NCAA president in 2002, marshaled the adoption of the Academic Progress Rate, which created penalties in the form of lost scholarships for poor academic performance as well as positive incentives for good results. Until it became a reality, a school could go for decades without graduating a single student-athlete and not be subject to NCAA penalties.

Brand made it happen. As a former university president at Oregon and Indiana, he could appeal to the increasingly influential college presidents. By reaching out to them, he earned the trust of many athletic directors.

He needed both.

While graduation rates began to improve, I continued to point out the huge differences between the rates of African-American and white students. That gap troubled Brand a great deal. A few years ago, he urged me to do a new study on the graduation rates of African-American student-athletes. We found that they were improving significantly.

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AP Photo/John RussellMyles Brand's integrity and background brought the NCAA into closer alignment with university presidents.

When Brand took the NCAA reins, I was on the board of the Black Coaches Association (now the Black Coaches and Administrators). A few months into his term, he came to the BCA executive board meeting. Prior to his arrival, the board had prepared responses to what it assumed would be NCAA resistance to the BCA's agenda. But by the time he left that meeting, we knew we had an ally. Brand had spoken in accord with the entire agenda.

He created the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and put Charlotte Westerhaus in charge of it. He got the NCAA to invest resources in programs to promote opportunities for people of color and for women as coaches and administrators.

I believe he was as frustrated as all BCA members were by the lack of progress for African-Americans as head coaches, especially in—but hardly limited to—football. BCA executive director Floyd Keith, Brand and I all testified before Congress in 2008 about the issue. Keith and I urged the adoption of what we call the “Eddie Robinson Rule,” which is similar to the NFL's Rooney Rule in its intent to get minorities into the interview process for major head-coaching jobs. The legendary Robinson, the winningest coach of all time when he retired from Grambling State, was never asked even to interview for a Division I job during his 57 years in the game.

Brand thought the NCAA membership would not go along with the Eddie Robinson Rule. It was our only area of real disagreement, but I never doubted that he wanted the same results. I had that much faith in his integrity.

Last year, he said, “I am frustrated that in the midst of progress in so many other areas, higher education and intercollegiate athletics continue to exercise a hiring practice in college football that is embarrassing and simply would not be tolerated elsewhere on campus.”

I met with Brand and Bernard Franklin (the NCAA executive vice president for membership and student-athlete affairs) in 2004 while the NCAA debated what to do about the persistently controversial issue of the use of Native American names and mascots for sports teams. I shared my view that they should be banned outright as long as they were offensive to some Native Americans. In February 2005, the NCAA banned the use of American Indian mascots by sports teams during its postseason tournaments only, but it is a big start. Brand and Franklin never backed down in the face of stiff resistance from members who fought the change. It was a critically important public stand for the head of the NCAA to make.

When conservative public forces outside of sport began to join resisters on the inside to try to weaken the effects of Title IX in 2005, Brand jumped right into the fray. This time, he even took on the president of the United States. The Department of Education in the Bush administration wanted to use an online survey of female students' interest to determine whether certain sports should be adopted, kept or dropped. Brand stood up for justice again and told the schools not to use the surveys.

He beat Bush, and Title IX stayed strong.

Beyond the public figure was the adoring husband of Peg Brand, an Indiana University professor of philosophy and gender studies. In the summer of 2008, when I asked him if he was going to get much vacation time, he said, “Probably not, but I will really enjoy co-teaching a course with Peg. I can't imagine anything more enjoyable.”

I am the president of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport (NCAS). In 2006, we gave our Giant Steps Award to Brand because we felt he had taken on the hard issues facing the NCAA: poor graduation rates, the gap in those rates between African-American and white student-athletes, the failure of some institutions of higher education to comply with Title IX issues, and the fact that our college programs were not giving adequate opportunities for people of color to gain key decision-making positions in college sport.

I was not surprised when Brand accepted the award by acknowledging two of his heroes: Jackie Robinson and Birch Bayh. Robinson, of course, broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, and Bayh was a champion of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which gave women equal opportunities in sports and academics in public education.

Allyce Najimy, a friend and former colleague of mine, e-mailed me last night that “I know you lost a friend in the justice world today.”

I was honored to be included in that thought with Dr. Myles Brand. There is no doubt that he was one of my heroes. He fought and won the good fights to right injustices.

I was blessed to call him a friend.

A Basketball Without Borders trip to South Africa touches the world, there and here

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—In Johannesburg earlier this month, all the sports talk was about the 2010 World Cup. It dominated the sports pages and TV time. And yet, the NBA created its own space here with the arrival of its Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Program.

I traveled with the BWB and watched with interest as it happened, not only to observe the effect of NBA stars Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Bosh and WNBA legends Theresa Edwards and Nykesha Sales on the people of South Africa, but also the effect of South Africa on them. And I saw the African athletes on the trip—Dikembe Mutombo, Luc Mbah a Moute and D.J. Mbenga—as they watched their teammates react to everything.

As a young civil rights activist, I read about South Africa in the early 1960s. I was astonished at the levels of oppression there. I came to know it as the worst form of racism on the face of the earth in the second half of the 20th century. I wrote about it and became involved in it as the head of ACCESS, the American Coordinating Committee for Equality in Sport in Society, which focused on boycotting South Africa in the world of sport. There were oil boycotts, trade boycotts and bank loan boycotts, yet somehow South Africa was able to get goods, cash and oil smuggled into the country. But the sports boycott worked. South Africa is a sports-mad country, and you can't play sports in the dark.

At the time I founded ACCESS in 1976, most of the countries in the world were no longer competing against South Africa in protest of its apartheid regime. Only the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Australia still allowed athletes and teams from South Africa to travel to their shores, and still sent their own teams to South Africa to compete.

Among the athletes on this year's Basketball Without Borders trip, only Edwards and Mutombo had been born back then. In this country in the '70s, we barely knew what apartheid was. Most Americans thought of South Africa as a civilized, Christian, anti-communist, pro-United States nation. Few knew that if you were among the 81 percent of the population who were not white, you could not vote, own land or send your children to certain schools. You existed simply to serve the white economy as a domestic servant, or in factories, farms and mines.

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NBAThe Magic's Dwight Howard brought back much to share from the lessons he learned in South Africa.

The first South African team to come to the United States after ACCESS was formed was the Davis Cup Team in 1978. They were met with great tumult and controversy; and ultimately, very few attended the matches. The number of protestors outside the stadium was four times greater than the number of fans inside.

I honored the travel boycott to South Africa for all the years of its existence. However, when I was asked by the newly formed National Olympic Committee of South Africa under the emerging government to bring Project Teamwork to the country in 1993, I was ready to go for the first time. Project Teamwork was a successful program that I helped create as the director of Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society in the late 1980s that taught conflict-resolution skills and tried to improve race relations among young people.

By then, Nelson Mandela had been released from prison (in 1990) and was about to make history by being elected president, which happened in 1994. In an effort to make a larger impression on the people of South Africa—where sports were totally segregated—I went to NBA commissioner David Stern and Charlie Grantham, then the head of the Players Association, and asked for their assistance. They agreed; and on that first Project Teamwork trip in 1993 and again in 1994, we took Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning and Patrick Ewing with us to South Africa, along with coaches Wes Unseld and Lenny Wilkens. Stern and Grantham came, as well. Kim Bohuny, a driving force behind the NBA's international expansion, was there in 1993 and again with BWB this year, as well as many times in between.

We had dinner with Mandela in 1993 and began to create South Africa's first integrated sport: basketball.

Traditionally, rugby and cricket were whites-only sports in South Africa. Soccer was for blacks. Perhaps it is a measure of the progress that soccer is king there right now, as the country prepares to play host to next year's World Cup.

In 1993, basketball was new in South Africa, and it could be shaped as an integrated sport. The NBA has been coming for seven consecutive years with its Basketball Without Borders program, and the most recent trip allowed us to see the fruits of democracy as well as some of the problems that persist in South Africa. For those involved in the civil rights movement, and especially the anti-apartheid movement, Mandela's land is still considered sacred ground.

Howard has had a big and positive impact on the Orlando community, but I knew South Africa would be a whole new world for him and many of the others. I particularly wanted to see the interaction between Howard and Mutombo, whose humanitarian efforts in Africa have been recognized worldwide, and how Mutombo might shed light on life in South Africa for the younger player.

The program was for the “campers,” 60 of the best players from more than 20 countries on the continent. They received instruction in basketball as well as life skills and participated in daily community events in and around Johannesburg. Mbah a Moute, from Cameroon, was an early camper in this program and became one of the African players now in the NBA. Seeing the talent and opportunities for developing it, few have doubts that the African population in the NBA and in American colleges and universities in Division I basketball programs will continue to grow.

I asked Mutombo what he hoped would come from this BWB trip.

“I want these young NBA players to go home and tell people about what they saw in South Africa so America can help Africa even more,” he said.

Mutombo's first trip to South Africa in 1993 was at a dangerous time. Violence was still happening all across the country, and the NBA had to provide security to protect us from risk. When we went to the American embassy for a reception hosted by the U.S. ambassador, we learned that Amy Elizabeth Biehl, a 26-year-old American Fulbright exchange scholar who was doing community work in South Africa, had been murdered that day. It became an international incident, and she remains a hero in many quarters. The ambassador had to take leave early that night because of the crisis.

How different it is now that African people have been able to live in freedom for the 15 years since Mandela's inauguration. This time, when we went to meet the South African ambassador at a reception, we had a joyous night. The tension was gone, the spirits were high and the hopes for the future were strong in spite of the problems that still exist in South Africa.

The key to Mutombo's hope for the players, of course, is their responses to the effects of apartheid. I watched them closely as they went through the Apartheid Museum, which is an amazingly accurate and emotive display of the horrors inflicted on black South Africans over the course of the 20th century. The players sat down at certain spots to stare at the more powerful images. They seemed to freeze as we stepped into a room where more than 100 nooses hung from the ceiling representing South Africans who died fighting for their freedom during the early days of resistance. With the history of lynchings in the United States, the Americans in the room were chilled to the bone.

They had the same reactions at the Hector Pieterson Museum. Pieterson was the first of 600 children killed in the Soweto Massacre in June 1976, a final turning point in world opinion about apartheid in South Africa. We drove through the streets of Soweto, including areas featuring new homes built since Mandela became president as well as mile after mile of shanties without sewage or running water that still exist because of the lack of resources to amend the wrongs of the racist century that preceded Mandela. We walked through those streets in Kliptown, one of the worst parts of Soweto.

I saw Howard looking deeply reflective and appearing very, very quiet back at the hotel after the first day at the museums and in Soweto. Before we went out to dinner, I asked him what he'd been thinking. He said, “I have so much to share with people at home. I had no idea about all of this.”

That is exactly what Mutombo wanted from the trip.

For the next three days, the players were inspired to work hard on several community projects. They planted a vegetable garden for the Cotlands Home, a shelter for HIV-positive, abused, abandoned, orphaned and terminally ill children. The next day, they worked on building four Habitat for Humanity homes in Ivory Park, another poverty-riddled neighborhood. The final afternoon was spent in Kliptown, where representatives from previous NBA Cares and BWB visits had built a Reading and Learning Center and a dining hall and kitchen which feeds the 500 children in the after-school program at the SKY (Soweto Kliptown Youth) Trust—an example of the legacy of NBA Cares and BWB. The league and the players have donated additional funds for SKY programs amounting to nearly $200,000. Mutombo has been one of the driving forces at SKY, as he has been in so many places.

On the last afternoon in Kliptown, I asked Jerome “Slim” DuPlooy, who has been working locally with Basketball Without Borders for several years, what the visits from BWB mean to his people.

“It means everything,” he said. “The children here who live in fear of the devils and demons of abuse, rape and neglect get nothing but love and affection from all these NBA people. Everyone has to think about dropping out when conditions are so desperate. Life is so hard here. I was ready to quit, but these guys picked me up. They don't come and leave. The NBA stays in touch with us.”

“Slim” is 22 and studying to become an actor so he can entertain people and tell dramatic stories to lift the spirits of the people in South Africa. He said he hit a low point, personally, in June of this year because he'd seen too many of his friends battling HIV or succumbing to the street life of crime. Coincidentally, the Magic lost in the NBA Finals to the Lakers at the same time.

“Dwight shook me up with what he said,” Slim told me. “Instead of being knocked out by the loss, Dwight told Jameer [Nelson] 'You have to lose something to win something.' That eased my pain and made me believe the pain was the loss, and now I would win. What they do for us is everything. They give me back my hope.”

I recently returned from Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program. It was the sixth time I visited South Africa, a country I came to love while helping lead the sports boycott of its apartheid-era government during the 1970s, '80s and until Nelson Mandela was inaugurated president in 1994.

Since its first trip in 2001, BWB has become the largest global initiative of any professional sports league, reaching 11 countries on five continents, with more than 300 NBA players, coaches and staff having served as camp coaches and mentors for nearly 1,200 young athletes from more than 100 countries.

At the BWB camp this year there were 60 of Africa's best young basketball talents from 21 African nations. They drilled each day with the NBA players and coaches, including Orlando's Dwight Howard, Toronto's Chris Bosh, Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, Los Angeles Lakers' DJ Mbenga, Charlotte's Vladimir Radmanovic, Detroit's Jason Maxiell, and former WNBA players Theresa Edwards and Nykesha Sales. The biggest attention-getter was recently retired NBA player Dikembe Mutombo, a son of Africa who is known globally for his humanitarian efforts and philanthropy. It is not all basketball, as the campers participated in daily seminars promoting education, leadership, character, healthy living and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

For me, the most special basketball moment was when Milwaukee Bucks second-year player Luc Mbah a Moute addressed the campers. He pointed to a section of the seats and said, “I sat right there as a camper. I worked hard and ended up with a scholarship to UCLA and now have a career in the NBA. But it all really started for me when I was here.”

He finished with what he said was the most important advice he could give. “Use this opportunity to get an education. Even if you never play professional basketball, the game can get you an education to prepare you for life.” I looked around the room while Luc spoke, and all the campers were on the edge of their seats, keenly attuned to every word.

Off the court, the NBA players and coaches were hanging on every word and absorbing every image as they saw firsthand how far South Africa has come since the end of apartheid, but also how far it has to go. We all went to the Apartheid Museum, which has a moving and powerful display of the oppression that had been imposed on Africans by white South Africans who held power throughout the 20th century and especially after apartheid became the national law in 1948.

The players toured the township of Soweto and saw the large number of homes built by the new government as well as the thousands of shanties that remained from the apartheid era. The players all said that while they had seen poverty in America, they had never seen anything like this.

The rest of the week involved community service events. I believe no one does service as well as the NBA with its NBA Cares program and now BWB. Overseeing it all is Kathy Behrens, executive vice president for social responsibility and player programs.

The players and staff helped out and planted a garden for the children at Cotlands, a shelter for HIV-positive, abused, abandoned, orphaned and terminally ill children. The next service site was a Habitat for Humanity project in Ivory Park. Past block after block of shanties with open sewage and no running water, we came upon the small area where Habitat was working. The entire NBA entourage, which was made up of more than 90 people, mixed duhga (an African mixture of sand, cement and water), carried cement blocks and joyously laid rows of blocks as the walls of four new homes went up like an oasis amid poverty. Combining work and what he called “supervising,” the NBA's humanitarian ambassador, Bob Lanier, wandered the four home sites, the compassion and concern showing on his face and those of all the players, coaches and staff.

On the final afternoon, we all walked through Kliptown, one of the worst areas in Soweto. Members of our group noted portable toilets positioned throughout the community. I knew that was actually an improvement because there was no potable running water and sewage poured down almost every street. After a 30-minute walk through areas that many in the group could never have imagined, we ended up at the Soweto Kliptown Youth Center. About 100 children performed amazing dances, and sang traditional songs. The NBA has been supporting the SKY Trust, which was founded in 1987 to address the needs of children facing poverty, poor or no education, abuse, HIV/AIDS and lack of motivation. These kids were among 500 participants in the SKY after-school program. The program has grown exponentially since the NBA and BWB came there in 2004. It built an impressive reading and learning center that has a multimedia/computer room, a library and staff offices. The NBA also built a dining hall and kitchen and partnered with Feed the Children to assure the SKY participants 500 meals a day. This impressive and powerful effort is a model for what sports can do to help make things better, no matter how hopeless they may seem.

The NBA has made children in Soweto, Ivory Park and Kliptown believe in what they cannot generally see. The children at SKY believe they can. They are motivated to achieve their full development potential. I have no doubt that they will never forget the towering human beings who spent the week with them. And none of us will forget the children.

I am unabashedly a fan of the NBA and the Orlando Magic. I grew up in a house with a father who was a coach in the early days of the NBA. Basketball was part of our lifestyle. I love the game but also what the game does for society.

I have watched throughout the tenure of David Stern as commissioner of the NBA as he helped the league develop into an organization that shows how it cares in a very public way.

NBA Cares is the most extensive community service program in sport and embraces every NBA city in addition to providing assistance in the international community in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. Stern has been at the forefront of so much of that global expansion. I was part of the NBA’s first trips to South Africa in 1993 and 1994 and can attest to the extraordinary impact.

I watched as Rich DeVos bought the Orlando Magic in the early 1990s and saw how an individual team like the Magic gives back so much to the community.

My life's work involves using sport as a vehicle to bring about positive social change in communities. Stern and DeVos are role models for how to do that in the most meaningful ways. Rich’s children, led by son-in-law and Magic President Bob Vander Weide, have picked up the mantle and are following in his footsteps.

The DeVos family's impact on the Central Florida region has included more than $60 million in local gifts in the last eight years including $1 million when hurricanes devastated the area in 2004.

He gave $2.5 million to UCF to start the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program to educate a generation of people on how to use sports to bring about social change. I am lucky enough to be the chair of that program. I also helped found the National Consortium for Academics and Sports, which serves communities across America and helps athletes complete their education. Facing a funding crisis, Rich rescued the NCAS with a $6.5 million gift.

Rich DeVos sets the tone for the Magic staff, which donated 3,400 volunteer hours last year. DeVos graduate students gave more than 4,000 hours of service in Central Florida. DeVos is the role model for all of them.

Within the first week after Hurricane Katrina, the Magic took players and staff twice to Baton Rouge, La., where most of the evacuees had been settled in shelters. It was America’s greatest modern natural catastrophe. I was on those trips and watched hopeless survivors rally when they saw that a team from another city was there to pitch in.

Since then, our DeVos students have spent 18 weeks working in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans rebuilding homes. The NBA had its 2008 All-Star Game in New Orleans, and 2,500 NBA-related volunteers did a day of service helping the city.

Heart of the city

As plans were approved for a new arena for the Magic, called the Orlando Events Center, DeVos and the Magic were leaders in other major civic building projects starting with a $10 million gift for the new Orlando Performing Arts Center. DeVos and the Magic are building five community centers to give young people much-needed after-school programs at a cost of $12.5 million.

The $480 million Orlando Events Center, home to the Magic, is scheduled to open in 2010. When the Magic’s original arena was built and opened in 1989, the development did little to extend much-needed resources and employment opportunities to minorities in Orlando. The African-American community in particular was very critical. The Magic and the city promised it would be different with the new building and developed a plan to make that happen.

I have long admired Rev. Randolph Bracy, a community leader and president of the Orlando NAACP. When the new arena was approved, he put the city and the Magic on notice that much more was expected. The building is well under way now. Bracy and the NAACP have staged protests outside before several playoff games saying the Magic and the city have not lived up to their promises to the African-American community. But promises cannot only be about the African-American community but all minorities as well.

When the first building was erected, the demographics of the city were largely white and African-American with a smaller Latino base. Like much of Florida, the Latino population is growing fast, jumping from 8.2 percent in 1990 percent to 23.7 percent in 2009. Orlando and Atlanta have two of the fastest-growing Latino populations. It is imperative today that any discussion about minorities be inclusive of all racial groups. When you look at it from that perspective, the Magic and the city are not only not breaking promises but are surpassing them.

According to Magic COO Alex Martins, "The city of Orlando has a forward-thinking blueprint which outlines a goal of 24 percent for minority participation for the Orlando Events Center. To date, 34.6 percent of the contracts, equaling $77.8 million, have been awarded to local minority and women business enterprises — including companies in Parramore. More than 120 minority and women firms are under contract (46 African-American-owned, 28 Hispanic-American-owned, 17 Asian-American owned, 37 women-owned), and since Feb. 13, 25 workers have been hired via the city work force program, 24 of which have been from local West Orlando neighborhoods." Parramore and West Orlando are largely African-American communities where poverty is all too common.

There is something about sports that brings people together and heals communities. DeVos knows that and clearly states that is one of the reasons he bought the Magic.

Rich DeVos and the entire Magic organization are erecting a new building not only with the physical materials needed to create an architectural gem for the city but with the spirit and sense of community that will make the new arena a living, beating heart for the city.

In December, I wrote a column calling for a civil rights movement in college football. It focused on the small percentage of African-Americans and other coaches of color among the 119 Bowl Subdivision schools in football, relative to the 46 percent of college football players who are African-American.

The call was for a series of dramatic changes, including legal action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and informing student-athletes of the graduation rates and hiring records of each athletic department in the country to help those student-athletes make decisions about which college to attend. A lynchpin of that call was to implement an "Eddie Robinson Rule," which would require that minority candidates be interviewed for head football coach openings. I know the NCAA has opposed this because it thinks its membership will not support it.

The state of Oregon now looks poised to pass a statewide law that would mandate this. The proposed law would require that athletic departments interview minorities for all head coaching jobs in all sports and for athletic director positions. The bill has been strongly supported by the Black Coaches & Administrators and its leader, executive director Floyd Keith, who testified with me in front of Congress in the spring of 2008 to support the adoption of an Eddie Robinson rule in college football. NCAA president Myles Brand was there, too, and testified that NCAA membership would not support the idea.

The person most responsible for the bill in Oregon is Sam Sachs, who was an undergraduate student in the Black Studies program at Portland State University and now works with Portland's Police Academy on diversity issues. He was at Portland State when the Vikings hired Jerry Glanville as their head football coach in February 2007, and says the school didn't give meaningful consideration to other candidates, including minorities. Sachs has worked tirelessly with Mitch Greenlick, a state representative from Portland. Greenlick eventually introduced House Bill 3118 as a plan strictly for football coaches in the state of Oregon. A House committee, however, extended its reach to all sports and athletic directors, creating a comprehensive piece of legislation affecting many hiring decisions.

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AP Photo/Don RyanSam Sachs watched how Portland State hired Jerry Glanville and decided to try to change the system.

I have been in regular touch with Sachs, and Keith and I testified in the Oregon House when it passed its version of the bill. The bill is now before the state Senate.

"Although I hope Oregon will be the first to make these requirements, it can't be the last," Sachs told me this week. "Other states must follow our lead and do the same thing. We owe it to our coaches, but more importantly our student athletes."

My idea for the Robinson Rule was that it would be enforced by penalties that the NCAA would invoke, such as the ones in its academic reform package, in which schools that persistently drop below the Academic Progress Rating benchmark can lose scholarships.

I have also called on Arne Duncan, the new secretary of education, to get more involved with this issue. Any time the president of the United States has done or said something about sports, it has created a significant discussion. If the White House gets involved after Oregon passes the bill, it would be very meaningful and could move the NCAA to adopt a similar policy. I know Brand well, and fully recognize that he is deeply committed to expanding opportunities for women and people of color on our college campuses. However, the record, as reported in the most recent College Racial and Gender Report Card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, is abysmal.

These are some of the disturbing numbers from the Report Card:

• 100 percent of the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conference commissioners are white men.
• Whites dominate the head coaching ranks on men's teams, holding 89 percent, 89 percent and 93 percent of all those positions in Divisions I, II and III, respectively.
• The numbers are similar on women's teams. Whites held 88 percent, 89 percent and 92 percent of all head coaching positions in Divisions I, II and III, respectively.
• Whites held an overwhelming percentage of athletic director positions in all three divisions: 90 percent, 92 percent and 97 percent in Divisions I, II and III, respectively.

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AP Photo/Eric GayThe late Eddie Robinson would be proud of the effort in Oregon to improve minority hiring practices at the college level.

The University of Oregon's new athletic director, Mike Bellotti, supports the legislation. The most recent high-profile jobs at the University of Oregon changed hands without a full interview process: Chip Kelly was hired from within to replace Bellotti as the head football coach; Paul Westhead was hired as the women's basketball coach only 10 days after Oregon fired Bev Smith; and Bellotti himself became the athletic director without a full search.

The Oregon legislation should get the attention of the NCAA and, hopefully, the White House and the public. The bill, like the Rooney Rule in the NFL, will require only that minorities be interviewed, not necessarily hired. Those of us involved in these issues have long felt that getting the best candidates in the room will result in the best person being chosen, and often the best person will be a white male. But it is important that universities find out who is available from a full and thorough search of candidates.

It is always possible that bogus, pro forma interviews designed only to satisfy the requirements of the law might take place as a result of this legislation. But it will also provide opportunities for universities to meet and interview candidates who they might not otherwise have considered and who fit the mission of the school.

"The Oregon bill will be the first time a law has been passed to address the issue of the failure of too many colleges to hire women and people of color," Keith said. "It will set a precedent for other states."

I am convinced Keith is correct. This is good legislation for the state of Oregon. But more importantly, the bill, if passed, will put pressure on other states to open their hiring processes.

It is long overdue.

The image is striking: An African-American man who is a Muslim talking to audiences about Jewish people who were leaders in the early civil rights movement and how African-Americans and Jews shared a common fight against oppression. And to add to this eye-catching image, the speaker -- the man working to rebuild bridges between the African-American and Jewish communities -- is a giant in the sports world.

The man is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

It's happening. Abdul-Jabbar is a speaker in high demand at Holocaust events and for groups fighting anti-Semitism. And to those who know him, that role isn't surprising at all.

Kareem recently told me, "It is important that African-Americans and Jewish Americans understand their common history, especially at the beginning of the early civil rights movement. Jews supported what African-Americans were trying to achieve in attempts to attain equality. Jewish lawyers worked for the NAACP and played a key role."

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Bill Baptist/ NBAE/ Getty ImagesThe sky hook helped make Kareem Abdul-Jabbar one of the greatest players of all time.

Forty years ago, Abdul-Jabbar, still playing as Lew Alcindor, ended his amazing college basketball career with a third straight national championship, this one coming in UCLA's 92-72 victory over Purdue, as well as a third straight award as the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA tournament. That season, 1968-69, he also won the first Naismith College Player of the Year Award.

Twenty years ago, he retired from the game as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, a six-time league champion, a six-time league MVP and a 19-time All-Star. Many consider him the greatest player of all time.

I met Lew Alcindor when I was a 13-year-old and he was 12, and we remain friends to this day. He is the most intelligent athlete I know -- a person of conscience who stands up for what he believes.

Last year, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, whose Black Power salute on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics is one of our most enduring images of the civil rights movement, were finally and rightly celebrated for their courage. That moment was captured in statues; their story was told in documentaries made in the United States, Britain and Australia; and they were honored across the globe for their bold protest against injustice at the Games. It's easy to forget, however, that Smith and Carlos competed in Mexico City because protest organizers could not pull off a proposed boycott of the Olympics by black athletes.

Alcindor, then a 20-year-old UCLA junior, and a handful of others did not compete in the Olympic basketball trials because they believed the boycott was going to happen. Therefore, they were not part of the Olympic team. Those players were as passionate and outspoken as any who were ostracized by much of America and later celebrated for their fight against discrimination.

In that era, many white Americans did not welcome African-Americans speaking out against racism, whether the protestors were civil rights advocates such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King or athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Bill Russell. I believe Ali, Russell and Abdul-Jabbar were able to keep competing because they simply were so extraordinarily gifted athletically, although Ali was kept out of boxing for three years for his stance against the Vietnam War. An outspoken athlete with lesser talent than those three brought to their sports would not have been able to continue his athletic career.

Now, years later, Ali is perhaps the most beloved sports figure of all time. After many years of estrangement, Boston and Russell are in a lovefest. And Abdul-Jabbar is a renaissance man.

Kareem has written six books on, among other things, Native Americans, the Harlem Renaissance and World War II. He knows martial arts through his friendship with Bruce Lee. He does yoga, is a jazz historian and breeds horses. He has appeared in movies and on TV; has his own blog; and is about to produce a multimedia show with music, dance and theater in New York, Philadelphia and at Washington's Kennedy Center, culminating with a performance at the White House.

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AP Photo/Zoom 77In 1997, Abdul-Jabbar visited the Western Wall in Israel and greeted Rabbi Moti.

My favorite Abdul-Jabbar quote is this: "I can do more than stuff a ball through a hoop. My greatest asset is my mind."

When I was growing up and becoming active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the strong historic alliances between African-Americans and people in the Jewish community were inspiring to me. But a rift slowly grew between blacks and Jews after the '60s. With the assassinations of leaders like King, Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, many African-American activists withdrew to their own community to fight for their rights, and old alliances with whites withered. The closest of those alliances -- with Jewish people -- fell victim to the times. I became saddened to see two groups that should be working together, perhaps more than any others in their common goals and histories, going in different directions.

I often wondered what it would take to bring those groups back together. I had a dear friend in Boston named Lenny Zakim who was the head of the New England Anti-Defamation League. Lenny, who died too young at age 46 in 1999, was a civil rights hero in Boston, where there is a long history of overt racism. Zakim's work included efforts to bring different groups together, especially the Jewish and African-American communities in Boston. When he died, the city named a new bridge in his honor -- the Leonard Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge -- and one of his heroes, Bruce Springsteen, performed on it the day it opened.

I introduced Lenny to two of his other heroes, Ali and Abdul-Jabbar. Lenny, who worked with presidents and popes in his quest for unity, was dazzled by both men. I was struck that this Jewish leader held these two African-American men, both of whom were Muslim, in such high regard.

Recently, I went with Abdul-Jabbar to a fundraiser for the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, which had invited him to speak at its annual event. Again, that could seem like an odd choice for those who don't know Kareem. But he might have been the perfect choice. It is hard these days for nonprofits to sustain their previous levels of fundraising, yet Kareem was a great draw and the event sold out.

Many people, no doubt, came to see a basketball legend. But no one could have left thinking only about Abdul-Jabbar's athletic fame.

Among his books is "Brothers in Arms," about the 761st Tank Battalion of African-American soldiers who fought at the end of World War II. Perhaps the most famous member of the regiment was somebody who never got to fight with it in Europe: Jackie Robinson, who was facing a court martial for insubordination after he refused the order of a white driver to go to the back of the bus in 1944. The charge eventually was dismissed, but he left the army before the battalion was deployed on its heroic mission. Jackie used sport in his own way as a vehicle for social change.

The 761st fought in the Battle of the Bulge and in five countries. It helped liberate Dachau, the Nazi death camp, and thus came face-to-face with the Holocaust. In the book, Abdul-Jabbar describes the horrors the soldiers saw in the death camp -- jars full of human eyeballs, shoes and clothes left in storage bins, deteriorating bodies and, of course, the infamous showers and ovens where millions of European Jews died.

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Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty ImagesKareem's post-playing career has featured numerous good works, including with the NBA Cares program. Here, he's signing autographs for members of the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica.

Kareem, a student of history, saw a connection between the Holocaust and the African slave trade, where an estimated 10 to 15 million Africans lost their lives.

About that night in Florida, Kareem said, "I thought the audience was interested in what I had to say. So many told me they had no idea that black soldiers helped liberate the death camps. They gave me a very warm reception."

Like so many others, Abdul-Jabbar formed his own values in part as a response to that historic destruction of human life, and he came to comprehend the phrase the Jewish community uses about the Holocaust: "Never before, never again." He read about the Jewish community in Harlem and the active role of Jews in the early civil rights movement. He wrote "Brothers" to inform America about a group of soldiers who were heroes in battles thousands of miles away and then were forgotten at home, much like their Air Force counterparts, the Tuskegee Airmen.

The Airmen became better known after books were written, a movie was made and numerous documentaries were produced. That increasing awareness is one of the reasons Abdul-Jabbar wrote about the 761st Tank Battalion. He wanted people to know those soldiers' stories, too.

President Jimmy Carter finally acknowledged the 761st with a Presidential Citation in 1978.

In the process of writing the book, Kareem's sense of horror about the Holocaust was renewed. What he wrote resulted in his desire to reach out to the Jewish community.

My late friend Lenny Zakim must be smiling, knowing his hero, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is carrying on his work of bringing Jews and African-Americans together.

I have known and been friends with Anita DeFrantz for three decades, since she was a vice president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1984 Summer Games. She is one of sports' true pioneers, both for her marvelous athletic career and for her position as perhaps the most powerful woman in international sport through her role in the International Olympic Committee. Her influence is written all over the Olympics.

Recently, she told me, "I know we are not done yet; but between 1996 and 2008, we have had twice as many women competing in the Olympics than those who competed between 1900 and 1992 combined. Forty-two percent of the Olympians were women in Beijing. When I was on the team, it was less than 20 percent."

The Olympic experience in the Athletes Village in 1976 shaped the rest of her life.

"I saw the Africans walk out to protest racism in South Africa," she said. "They stood up for justice, and I learned from them. But I also learned from the Olympians who stayed that everyone could live in peace. Sport smashed boundaries and dissolved hatred."

DeFrantz has been an against-all-odds person throughout her career. It was against considerable odds that this girl, who wasn't able to play high school sports, became a great rower. She didn't compete in that sport until college; yet in 1976, she became the first African-American to win an Olympic medal in rowing. Later, she showed the courage to stand up to President Jimmy Carter, in leading athletes to protest the administration's boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games.

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AP Photo/Ivan SekretarevAnita DeFrantz has been one of the most powerful people -- and perhaps the most powerful woman -- in sports since she became an IOC vice president in 1997.

The focus of ESPN's coverage of Women's History Month this year is on young athletes in sports that are both traditional and non-traditional. DeFrantz's role as a positive influence in helping young women become competitive in sport makes her a perfect subject. Her own example, of course, is a key factor. She broke barriers and gave hope to young girls that they could follow her path.

I accompanied Anita to the National Black Heritage Swimming Championships in May of 2008 and watched young black girls huddle around her. She was excited to see all these youthful African-American barrier breakers who were trying to find their way in a traditional country club sport that has provided opportunities almost exclusively for whites. She kept telling them, "Yes, you can; yes, you can." DeFrantz has been saying this to young girls ever since she stopped competing herself, and long before Barack Obama's "Yes, we can" campaign phrase took on a whole new meaning.

Anita said at the time, "I wanted to swim competitively when I was their age, but an African-American girl had no outlet to swim. My being a competitive athlete prepared me for everything that followed in life. I think it is great that these kids are getting this opportunity."

One of the young women in awe of Anita was the University of Maryland's Blair Cross, who was then the only African-American swimmer in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Cross recently told me, "It was so inspiring to have met Ms. Anita DeFrantz. When I first met her, I must admit that I was surprised that there was an African-American woman who held such an influential position within the International Olympic Committee. She made me immediately comfortable in approaching her to ask about her sports career and college athletic career in rowing. She and I share a similar experience in being minorities in our sports. We have been asked similar questions and have been put in uncomfortable positions as minorities in our sports -- especially sports that have a history of not being diverse at all. She couldn't swim competitively during her college years, but here I am. And she also had questions about my current experiences."

Indeed, DeFrantz engaged those young people like adults rarely do. She asked questions such as, "Was the competition good for you? Would you do it again? Did you accomplish what you set out to do?"

She got enthusiastic answers to all her questions.

I have seen young athletes and athlete representatives at an IOC meeting seek her advice. While her athleticism and international influence are most often noted in her story, I have no doubt that her greatest legacy will come from the millions of children who have participated in LA84, a foundation that she has led for 23 years. LA84 has undertaken programs to support sporting, health and fitness activities in Southern California and was funded originally by profits from the Los Angeles Olympics. Focusing on sports activities that historically have been denied to impoverished youth, the programs have helped jumpstart the careers of young athletes who became high school stars, won college scholarships, made Olympic teams and turned pro. With support from LA84, for example, Venus and Serena Williams began to compete in Southern California Tennis Association events before they took America and the tennis world by storm.

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AP Photo/BurnettIn 1980, DeFrantz and the ACLU's Ira Glasser announced a lawsuit against the U.S. Olympic Committee over the boycott of the Moscow Games.

Angela Williams, another former LA84 athlete, won four straight NCAA titles in the 100 meters at Southern Cal, won the 60-meter gold medal at the 2008 IAAF world indoor championships and was on the past two U.S. Summer Olympic teams. Among other LA84 products in track and field are Valerie Flores, Natalie Stein and Alexis Weatherspoon, who became intercollegiate stars; and Zuri Henderson, who has made a mark in the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships.

In short-track speed skating, Jacqueline Chen won the 2008 U.S. National Short Track Championships in her age group (9 and under), and Maria Garcia competed in the Torino Olympics and was the U.S. Junior Short Track Champion. In track cycling, Christine Barron, Sarah Chen and Tara McCormick competed successfully in the 2007 and 2008 USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships. All were supported by LA84. The foundation has a six-page list of the girls and boys it has supported who competed nationally.

But when DeFrantz talks about the foundation, she talks about more than the accomplishments of the athletes on the playing field.

"We live in dangerous times," she said. "The streets of our cities can be battlegrounds. Within a two-week period four years ago, two college students who went through foundation programs came back to volunteer. Working their ways home, both were shot and killed."

Anita was determined to further expand their programs to get kids off the streets.

By now, more than 2.5 million children have participated in LA84 programs. Each summer, 9,000 young people take part in a huge swim program. DeFrantz proudly said of the program, "80 percent of our life guards were summer swimmers."

She glows even more brightly when she talks about the girls who have become healthier through competition and who have participated in the life skills programs almost always attached to LA84 athletic programs. They come to believe that "Yes, we can," in their own lives.

Anita DeFrantz opened a world of new opportunities by making, and then shaping, history. This is her legacy to all the young girls she has inspired and touched.

America needs the Jackie Robinson Museum now. It is that simple.

As the Major League Baseball opener draws closer amid the crunch of the economy, we see cutbacks all across the nation. Jobs are being cut, businesses are closing, homes are being emptied after foreclosures, wars are being waged and budgets are being slashed in every sector of the economy. America’s confidence has been shaken.

The one force that seems to be holding us together has been President Barack Obama. Who would have thought last year that an African-American would be elected as president and then draw in people across racial groups after his inauguration? He has plans that make sense to most, courage to forge ahead into unseen territory and charisma to give people hope.

Any individual success story is built on the shoulders of others. In this historic year, many commentators have remarked on the trails blazed by Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, Jesse Jackson and others that made it possible for America to consider Barack Obama.

I have no doubt that another man stands near the top of that list. Jackie Robinson’s extraordinary skills on the playing field and his even more extraordinary courage woke up America and hastened the need to begin confronting the literal and figurative shackles that America had placed on African-Americans. He helped move forward the liberation of people of all colors, including whites, before Rosa Parks sat down on the bus, before King led the bus boycott and marches across the South, before Ali refused to fight in what he believed to be an unjust war, or before Jackson began his crusades against the plethora of injustices confronting the nation.

It is often easy to forget legacy, but Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s magnificent widow who has become an American hero in her own right, has worked hard to preserveJackie’s. First it was the Jackie Robinson Foundation created in 1973 as a vehicle to perpetuate his legacy. The JRF has become a major advocate for young people with the greatest need, and has granted four-year scholarships for higher education to many young students of color. The JRF also provides support for its JRF Scholars through its unique Education and Leadership Development Program. This extensive mentoring program includes workshops, assignment of a peer and a professional mentor, and placement into summer internships and permanent employment.

Since its inception, more than 1,200 JRF Scholars have benefited from the program. Last year alone, more than 270 students enrolled at 93 institutions in 30 states and received more than $3 million in scholarship support. JRF Scholars graduate at a rate of 97 percent, more than twice the national average for students of color.

Rachel Robinson is leading fundraising efforts to
establish a museum in her late husband’s honor.

With the foundation now well established, Rachel Robinsondecided that the next logical step would be to establish a JackieRobinson Museum.

It is more than fitting since his baseball accomplishments helped open the national discussion on civil rights. He challenged not only baseball but society to integrate leadership positions with his own outspoken leadership on civil rights after he became a corporate executive and national figure in the political world.

The foundation announced plans for the Jackie Robinson Museum last year at its annual fundraising gala and awards dinner. The museum will be in lower Manhattan at the foundation’s new national headquarters. The 2009 gala is scheduled for March 16.

The goal is to raise $25 million for the construction of the museum. About half of the funds are pledged or in hand. The museum idea has brought together the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox through the Yawkey Foundation. The New York Mets, Citigroup and Nike joined them at the $1 million-plus level. But now the reality of the economy has made raising the rest of the funds more difficult.

The Obama administration has made education a priority. The museum fits that priority. When the plans were announced in 2008, Leonard Coleman, foundation chairman and former president of the National League, said, “This is a long overdue tribute to a great American. We will be opening a state-of-the-art, vibrant, interactivemuseum to expose  all people to the man whose principles we all hold dear.”

Robinson’s story needs to be known by children who lack a real sense of history, and the museum will not only tell that story but do so in the context of the history of race relations in America. They will be inspired as so many of their grandparents and parents were by following Robinson’s greatness during his lifetime.

Only three MLB teams have contributed. All should. But so should the NFL and NBA teams, which also benefited from Robinson’s legacy. Beyond sports, America, including our president, has benefited. It would be a tribute to America itself if we all come together to get this historic project completed.

AP Photo/Jasper Juinen/File In the 2006 World Cup quarters, Lilian Thuram celebrated France's victory over Brazil.

If you are a soccer fan, you know that Pele called Lilian Thuram one of the 125 greatest soccer players of all time. Thuram, who turned 37 this January, led the 1998 French team to the World Cup and appeared in 16 European championships, retiring in 2008 after a heart problem was discovered. He recently was selected as a member of the federal council of the French Football Federation.

He is a giant in the world's most popular sport.

But that is not why I am writing about him. I'm writing about him because he has used his fame to campaign for civil rights in France and throughout Europe. He is speaking out as an almost solitary voice in European sports, as when Muhammad Ali and Bill Russell spoke out in the U.S. in the 1960s. Speaking out takes enormous courage.

I was in France for the first time in 1960 (I was 15 years old), and the American civil rights movement was heating up. At the time, many Frenchmen told me how bad race relations were in the United States, and that we should learn from the French.

Back then, hardly any people of color lived in France. The country was just emerging from the colonial era, and great numbers of people from its colonies were only beginning to move to France.

Nearly 50 years later, France has major racial problems. Paris experienced horribly violent riots in 2005. Thuram estimates that around 20 percent of the population today consists of Muslims (they come from north Africa and the Middle East) and immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. Thuram was born in Guadeloupe, a French territory in the Caribbean, in 1972. When he was 9 years old, his mother moved the family to a poor Paris suburb, where he confronted racism for the first time.

Thuram's goal became to convince his new fellow countrymen that black people and Muslims could be French as well. The development of his soccer skills gave him a platform that other people of color in France did not have. But still, he has said that the only time he felt completely French was after he scored two goals in the match against Croatia that advanced France to the final of the 1998 World Cup.

Large numbers of immigrants in France live in projectlike housing in the suburbs that ring the big cities. In France, people of color are called "immigrants" or "suburbanites." The term "immigrant" refers to anyone whose family came to France from another country even if he has officially become a citizen.

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AP Photo/Christophe EnaLilian Thuram gives a thumbs-up during France's semifinal victory over Portugal in the 2006 World Cup.

Thuram's commitment to civil rights in France was heightened after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. Tensions were high in France, as they were around the world. In what was supposed to be a peace match, France was to play its former colony, Algeria, on Oct. 6 that year in Paris. But young Algerian Muslim fans, frustrated by racism against immigrants, became rowdy during the playing of "La Marseillaise," the French national anthem. Some young fans stormed onto the field, and the players broke for the exits -- all but Thuram, who grabbed and held one of the young people. He tried to tell him he was damaging the cause of people living in France's suburbs.

The frustration of immigrant fans has not changed much. In 2008, the French national soccer team hosted Tunisia, and hundreds of fans again booed during the French national anthem.

France's 1998 championship team was multicultural and included superstar Zinedine Zidane, raised in Marseille in France by his parents, who came from Algeria. Eight years later in another World Cup final, against Italy, Zidane had a famous confrontation with Marco Materazzi that ended with Zidane's head-butt of Materazzi. Zidane claimed Materazzi called him "the son of a terrorist whore." Materazzi later admitted he'd said, "I prefer the whore that is your sister." Zidane was sent to the sideline with a red card, but it is widely believed he was provoked into action.

Another teammate was Christian Karembeu, who came from the French territory of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. His relatives had been taken to Paris in 1931 as part of a "human zoo" in the Paris Colonial Exhibition, where they were depicted as cannibals. Karembeu angered many soccer fans because he refused to sing "La Marseillaise" at matches. However, many activists admired his actions.

It isn't uncommon for European soccer fans to act with reckless racist abandon during games. Racist chants can be heard from the stands, and bananas sometimes are thrown on the field. (My friend, former New England Patriot defensive back Keith Lee, had bananas thrown at him on the field in the 1970s when he was a college quarterback at Colorado State.) Once, when Thuram publically criticized that behavior, some fans showed up at the next match in Parma, Italy, with a banner meant for Thuram that read, "Show us respect."

Perhaps Thuram's defining moment as a civil rights activist came during and after the 2005 riots in Paris. Nicolas Sarkozy, now the country's president but then the minister of the interior, referred to the rioters as "scum." Thuram responded publicly, pointing out that Sarkozy had never lived in a suburban ghetto.

And when National Front anti-immigrant leader Jean-Marie Le Pen complained that year about immigrants playing for France, Thuram said, "I'm not black. I'm French."

A year later, Sarkozy had 80 immigrants removed from their residences because he said they were living there illegally. Thuram invited all 80 to be his guests at a soccer match between France and Italy.

It is ironic that Sarkozy, recognizing Thuram's enormous influence, asked him to be his minister of diversity after he retired from soccer last year. Thuram politely refused so he could focus his efforts on his Lilian Thuram Foundation, which campaigns against racism.

I met him in November of last year when we both spoke at the Council of Europe, which was addressing racism in sport. Everything I had read and everyone I had spoken to before the trip prepared me to expect race relations in France to be about where they were in 1960 in the United States. But the situation was even worse. The French are in total denial. Thuram reinforced all of this in his remarks at the Council of Europe and in my private conversation with him. He asked whether he could visit me in Florida to see what we had been doing all these years to combat racism in sports and in society, seeking strategies to advance the anti-racist movement in France and Europe.

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Henriette GirardEarlier this month, Thuram spoke at length with students in the DeVos Sports Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida.

He arrived in Orlando on Feb. 9, and we had a whirlwind two days. Thuram came with Henriette Girard, the press attaché for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and Lionel Gauthier, who is in charge of the development of the Lilian Thuram Foundation.

We visited with Alex Martins and Linda Landman-Gonzalez, the chief operating officer and the vice president of community relations and government affairs, respectively, of the Orlando Magic. The Magic have one of the most extensive diversity management training programs on any professional team. They spent hours with Keith Lee, Robert Weathers and Jeff O'Brien, who head up the Teamwork Leadership Institute, the diversity management team at the University of Central Florida, doing the training for the Magic, NASCAR and more than 100 colleges and universities.

We met with Marcus Jadotte, who is in charge of diversity efforts at NASCAR, which is in the midst of doing diversity training for every NASCAR employee and official.

Finally, we went to Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., which canceled all classes on Feb. 11 to devote the day to diversity issues. Thuram spent hours with the students in the DeVos Sport Business Management graduate program at Central Florida, a program of which I am the chair. He was amazed at the extent of what is done here during Black History Month to celebrate and reflect on the contributions to the world by African-Americans. He kept talking about BHM everywhere we went.

Thuram shared his philosophy with the students.

"The problem will not disappear unless we go into the classroom and get children to look at history and see where prejudices come from," he told them. "Children are not born racist; they become racist, acquiring the prejudices of others. We must educate them."

Thuram told us he is pushing FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, for stronger sanctions in the sport when overt acts of discrimination occur.

"The Croatian [Football Federation] had to pay only 15,000 pounds [about $21,400] for the monkey chants of their supporters in Zagreb," he said. "This sends a bad message to both blacks and whites.

"If there is a young black person in the stadium or at home watching on TV, he will feel small if he hears the monkey chants. If the fine is insignificant, the black fan may have a sense of being a victim and may become racist towards white people. Some white people in the stadium get the message that it is not serious. The authorities have to make an example of those guilty of racism and punish them hard. Taking points away would show the authorities were serious."

In addition to his own foundation, Thuram supports the campaigns of other groups such as the Council of Europe Campaign, "Speak out against discrimination"; and the British campaign, "Kick it Out." In November in Strasbourg, I met with people from about 15 countries who are doing anti-racist work in their respective regions. All their campaigns were relatively new, reflecting the historical denial of racism in European. For them, Thuram is their Muhammad Ali, 40 years later.

Now, back in Paris, Thuram and his foundation are working to create a Minority History Month modeled after America's Black History Month. He told me, "We have so much to learn from America. We are so far behind you. I dream of the day there will be a French Barack Obama. I will continue to work to tackle racism, and football can help. Football has a capacity to touch so many people."

A circle closed in the history of basketball in America when John "Wonder Boy" Isaacs passed away on Jan. 26. Isaacs, 93, was the last living player for the Harlem Renaissance, the great all-black team in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

I met Isaacs 39 years ago at my father's funeral. My dad, Joe Lapchick, was the center on the Original Celtics basketball team and later coached the New York Knicks and St. John's University. Dad had told me about the rivalry between the Celtics and the Rens. They started playing at a time when blacks and whites had not competed against each other. It is hard to imagine today when we look at the NBA's being nearly 80 percent African-American and Division I college basketball's being nearly 67 percent African-American. But this was the case when the Rens and the Celtics played against each other.

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Black Fives, Inc. and the John Isaacs CollectionJohn "Wonder Boy" Isaacs was known as a great playmaker, tenacious rebounder and hard-nosed defender. (Photo circa 1936.)

They decided in the 1920s that they would play against each other to break those barriers, and the game was never the same. No white team could beat the Celtics, and no black team could beat the Rens. Their rivalry was so profound that the Basketball Hall of Fame inducted both teams. At the time, they were the only two teams in the Hall of Fame other than the team that first played the game. It was not until the Globetrotters were inducted almost 40 years later that another team was admitted.

I had never met any of the Rens. At my father's wake in 1970, I noticed five elderly black gentlemen sitting together in the funeral home. I approached them, and Bob Douglas, the owner of the Rens and one of my father's closest friends, said to me, "Richard, I am Bobby Douglas. I was with the Rens." Of course, I knew who he was, and we embraced as my father had embraced Charles "Tarzan" Cooper before each and every game. I will say more about that later. With Douglas was Isaacs, one of the stars of the Rens when they won the world championship in 1939. When the Knicks won the NBA championship in 1969-70, led by Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe, the New York press called it "New York's first world basketball championship." In fact, the New York Rens had won this honor nearly three decades earlier. After the Rens faded in the early 1940s, Isaacs won a second world championship as a star on the all-black Washington Bears in 1943.

I spoke at the induction of the Original Celtics into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame a number of years ago. Isaacs was in the audience. My speech did not reflect the legend of the Celtics, which was well known to the crowd. Instead, I made most of my remarks about the Rens. I told the audience that my father consistently told me that they were the Celtics' equals and that on any given night, either team could win.

The Rens won in spite of the shackles of racism of the society in which they played. They traveled about America in a luxury bus Douglas bought for them. He did this because he knew many hotels would not accommodate African-Americans, so they slept on this bus. When the Celtics bought dinner at their favorite restaurants, they would watch their friends from the Rens team take food to the bus, knowing they would not be served in those same restaurants. On three occasions, they left town in tandem, the Celtics following the Rens' bus in their cars. On three occasions when they pulled into gas stations, Dad saw a man come out with a rifle, chasing away this group of African-American players from his lily-white pumps.

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Black Fives, Inc.Isaacs, shown at the Renaissance Ballroom in 2004, played for the New York Renaissance Big Five (aka "Rens"). Isaacs is wearing modern-day "retro" merchandise produced to celebrate the historically important accomplishments of the Rens.

During several games, all in the Midwest, race riots took place when angry fans stormed the court. Owners of the arenas where violence was threatened would build nets around the courts to protect players so that fans could not get to them. This was actually the origin of the term "the net game," which most people assumed came about because of the net under the rim.

Cooper and my father would not shake hands before each game. Instead, they embraced because they wanted the fans to know that for these Celtics and these Rens, this was not simply about a Hall of Fame basketball game but also about their vision for what America could someday become.

I spoke with Isaacs in the fall after Barack Obama was elected president. He told me that when he played, he "never thought I would live to see the day that basketball would be integrated, there would be black coaches of NBA teams, general managers, team presidents and now even an owner. Those things were fulfilling for me, but nothing has shown me more than the progress of America on the issue of race than when we elected Barack Obama."

I am glad he lived to see it. What he missed, however, was being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Seven of his Rens teammates have made it, including Cooper and William "Pop" Gates individually, and the 1932-33 Rens team, which brought in Clarence "Fats" Jenkins, Johnny Holt, Eyre Saitch, Willie Smith and Bill Yancey. After Isaacs joined the Rens in 1936, they had records of 122-19, 121-19 and 127-15 leading up to the 1939 world championship.

Isaacs has been in the mix for induction a few times in recent years. I was disappointed that he did not make it as a finalist for this year's induction into the the Basketball Hall of Fame. I hope the selectors will finally induct another pioneer in 2010. Isaacs never left the game and taught it to kids for 50 years until the end of his journey at the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club in New York. The 93-year-old legend suffered a stroke at the club while teaching the kids 11 days before he passed. Isaacs, who was born in Panama in 1915 and grew up in the United States, remained a world champion to the kids. The Hall of Fame could allow all of America to see the champion up close.