I believe that healthy non-attacking debate is good and I disagree with the closing of the previous post on the Oklahoma baseball situation.
I do not believe it is OK to have racist coaches or make racist statements at any level of any sport.
Several years ago during the Spring of 1995 I was a sports writer in New York City. I wrote a story about then-St. John's University coach Joe Russo being charged with racism during a school investigation.
Here are some of the things he was accused of doing:
1 - St. John's represented the USA at the Pan American Games that year because it was during the college season. The Red Storm volunteered to go play in the Games.
Russo took all his scholarship players, but one, and several non-scholarship players as well. The lone scholarship player not attending the event was the only African-American player on the team.
2 - He has used a racial slur when he and an African-American girl collided while they were both jogging on a cold wet day in New York City. He allegedly called her a n----r and other things.
3 - When asked if he thought his coach was a racist the player replied very quickly that he didn't think his coach was a racist...he knew he was a racist.
There is a lot more to the story, but you get the idea. To the credit of the staff at St. John's I was leaked information that helped get this story onto the front page of the paper. However, to their discredit the schoool administration did not force this coach to resign until after the fall season was over in 1995 - and that was due to pressure from the NAACP.
IMHO people like that do not need to be coaching at any level. I was brought up not to hate people because of their color and find the support for the Oklahoma coach by some posters very questionable and to be honest very scary. I am completely in Dad04s corner on this issue.
And for the people who believe this was an issolated instance - that is ridiculous. The coach made the comment to two different reporters of whom he does not even know very well. I'll bet he has made it to many others as well.
If the resignation was forced I commend the Oklahoma administration for acting properly and quickly. Think about it this way, if a college professor used the same word to describe a student he would be fired right away - no matter how much tenure he had.
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