“Glory Road”, Not So Glorious for Everyone

New York, NY (PRWEB) January 14, 2006

It was a first in college athletics. In 1966, an all-black starting team played for the national NCAA basketball championship title and won. While some claim the historic Texas Western College victory over the all white University of Kentucky team was one of the most unheralded civil rights events in American history, others say the game sparked a tragic and massive exploitation of black athletes in college athletics.

“As nice as they were to allow us the chance to play, it has turned into a money machine for those who don’t respect their sources of labor,” says Dr. Boyce Watkins, who has lectured around the world on Finance and race relations. “Even ex-Auburn coach Terry Bowden agrees with me that there is mass racism in college sports. It is sad that other educators like myself are not willing to admit the same.”

Watkins mentions that places like The University of Kentucky, where he was once on the faculty, have not changed much since their experience against Texas-Western 40 years ago.

“Although UK does not condone the behavior of Adolph Rupp, they still dropped their black freshman admissions by 40% last year,” says Watkins who spoke at The University of Kentucky last month to an audience including current UK coach Tubby Smith. “At the same time, they are always happy to bring in black folks to dribble basketballs and take out the trash.”

Dr. Watkins’ research study, published in the journal “Bridges”, found that the NCAA earns over $1 Billion per year from its black male athletes. The professor, who is also author of “What if George Bush were a Black Man?”, shows that the lack of compensation has led to a 40-year loss of $250 Billion for the black community. He argues that the NCAA should take a look at its policies with regard to its athletes.

“If you watched the bowl games, you saw kids coming off the field in stretchers every 5 minutes,” maintains Dr. Watkins. “ I am not sure why others earned hundreds of millions from their efforts, and their hungry families get nothing.”

Watkins also cites the low graduation rates for black athletes and the fact that they are not hired as coaches or administrators once their careers are over.

“Most major universities have fewer black students graduating than white ones,” says Dr. Watkins, who also lectured on Financial Theory in China last year, “You also have only 3% of head college football coaches of African-American decent, even though they represent half of the athletes and most of the great athletes. How fair is that?”

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