The Black Athlete- A Shameful Story

Came across this link while reading an SI column about Sports selling black culture. It's from a ground-breaking five-part series SI started July 1, 1968. I've just started reading,but it seems like a really good and insightful read when anyone has the time to digest it.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1081325/11/index.htm

 

SI was writing about Barry Bonds in 1968?

 

I think the Miami Herald did a series in the 1980s. So if this interests you, you might want to search archives.

 

Jack Olsen turned that 1968 series into a book, "The Black Athlete: A Shameful Story: The Myth of Integration in American Sport." A classic. Some readers may remember Olsen's reporting for one piece of the book that has been mostly ignored in stories about the famous 1966 Texas Western-Kentucky basketball game. That is, rather than finding a leader in racial integration, Olsen reported that Texas Western's athletic administration was itself racist.

In 1967, by the way, Olsen did the first real biography of Muhammad Ali. Another classic.

 

I have the book somewhere in my cartons up in my attic. Definitely didn't paint Texas Western (the university itself) as a trailblazer of racial equality. Also had rather extensive chapters on Elvin Hayes and the 1968 Olympics.

 

Phil Taylor penned a short piece about the old series in this week's SI:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/phil_taylor/07/01/money0707/index.html