Minorities in sport and the Pride of Prejudice
Three years after Neil Francis’ live radio comments about homosexuality in Irish sport, the problems still remain.
April, 1987 a balmy evening like any other in Southern California. A national news report on ABC’s Nightline program was covering the build-up to the 40th anniversary of the late Jackie Robinson’s debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 — the first such instance of a black player taking the field in an integrated team in a Major-League Baseball. This was an historic event, an anniversary worth noting and the producers at ABC that day decided to book a guest who had been there, who was close to Robinson. The guest, present via satellite link, was the former player and World Series winning general manager of the LA Dodgers, Al Campanis. Campanis, the first Greek player in Major-League Baseball, was himself a former teammate of Robinson’s who, along with others of the era, helped to alter opinions on judging an athlete by their ability rather than by their ethnicity. Robinson’s debut changed baseball and finally began the grueling process of integrating the omnipresent sport known as America’s pastime.
Although the anniversary was marking a momentous day in American sporting history, the broadcast itself was set-up to be a routine affair, a discussion on a baseball great and his lasting legacy in the game with a person who knew him well. During this innocuous telecast, one of many the Dodger GM of nearly 20 years had done before, he received a question he was ill prepared to deal with.
The host, Ted Koppel, inquired as to why there was no black general managers or very few minorities represented in senior roles at Major-League Baseball clubs nearly 40 years after Robinson had become the first black American to play in the league. Campanis’ reply that evening would cost him his job.
“I don’t believe there is prejudice, I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities to be a field manager or perhaps a general manager”. When asked if really believed that, he continued “I don’t say that all of them but they certainly are short, how many quarterbacks do you have, how many pitchers do you have that are black?”. He went on “I’m not saying that blacks aren’t intelligent, many of them are highly intelligent, but they might not have the desire to be in the front office” but did conclude that “they’re very wonderful people, that’s all I can tell you about them”.
Koppel attempted to walk Campanis back and gave him ample opportunity to refactor his comments, but Companis was steadfast, standing by his original comments.
The reaction was swift. Campanis was fired from his post within 24 hours. The baseball commissioner, Peter Ueberroth, hired Harry Edwards, a black sociologist and former athlete as his assistance for minority affairs. Edwards first act was rehiring Campanis so he could tackle the Campanis’ of the baseball world and wanted to have someone in house who knew how they thought. Progress was slow, but it was made, more black athletes progressed to management roles and in the years to come, the black former player and sports caster Bill White became president of the National League, one of the highest roles in baseball.
Fast forward nearly 27 years and pop across the Atlantic and we arrive at tone deaf comments made by a former player and current Irish Independent journalist Neil Francis made during a routine radio discussion on the Off the Ball program on Newstalk in 2014. At the time, he contended that fewer than 1% of the sporting population of Ireland was gay and gay people would rather take up hairdressing than be in a locker room. Francis came out after the infamous broadcast, apologised profusely, contemned and withdrew the comments he made which drew ire. The famous rugby referee Nigel Owens, himself a target of hostility for being gay in such a public domain accepted Francis’ apology has sincere. Case closed you would think.
So, why bring this up now? The issue arose and was put to bed more than 3 years ago, Francis apologised, years have passed. Well, it’s precisely for the that time which has passed. The underlying issues persist. Few athletes have come out publicly since the Off the Ball interview and it’s difficult to believe that the hairdresser hypothesis put forward by Francis is the reason behind this lack of visible LGBT athletes in the top echelons of Irish sport.
In the UK, Tom Daly is the highest profile athlete of recent times to publicly come out and align as bisexual. The Olympian has faced some ugly abuse since his announcement from certain subsets of the public and dealt with some intense intrusion on his private life from tabloid media. Yet he has conducted himself with great dignity nor has he stooped down to the level of some of his abusers online. He has, in a similar fashion to the great Jackie Robinson, trailblazed a path of dignity for others to follow.
It is my hope that in another three years, issues like this will not even be worthy of notice. Neil Francis’ comments would become like the comments of Al Companis, the subject of historical documentaries, the jumping off point for reactionary progress rather than symptomatic to the contemporary conversation.
Athletes, regardless of their sexuality should be celebrated for their ability, participation and success, without fear of any questions or negative connotations of their social choices taking president.
