Enlightened era means better basketball

It has been less than 24 hours since the final horn sounded, signaling the end of the first round of the NCAA basketball tournaments. I think I'm in the early stages of recovery, after attempting to keep track of 32 men's basketball games over a four-day period, as well as at least three women's games. I suppose the NCAA decided to separate the first and second week of the tournament by three days to allow the players to rest and travel to their next sites. But maybe it was also to allow fans a chance to unwind, make excuses on why their brackets took such a hit and to allow the fans to restock the kitchen before Thursday night.

The tournament has become one of the major events of the year. It generates millions of dollars for the NCAA, member universities and the TV networks. We are an enlightened generation here in the 21^st century and most of us disregard the race of the players we are watching. But it doesn't take even an occasional viewer long to observe that the majority of the players on the court this past weekend were African-Americans. But it wasn't always that way.

Although African-Americans had played college basketball from the early part of the last century, their participation was generally limited to all-black schools. A few integrated some white major college programs before the start of World War I. But it wasn't until 1947 that an African-American broke the “gentleman's agreement” that had barred blacks from the Big Ten Conference when he joined the Indiana team.

Legendary Coach John Wooden, then coach at Indiana State Teacher's College, was the first to take an integrated team to a postseason tournament. The National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball lifted its ban on blacks and Wooden's first team went all the way to the finals, falling in the championship game to Louisville. It too two more years before the NCAA and the NIT tournaments became integrated.

Imagine how boring last week's games may have been if the NCAA was operating under the ban it had in place before 1949. There were a few white players who had great games in some of the contests I watched, but far more of the spectacular plays were made by young African-Americans.

Another sport that has benefitted by the change in attitudes of team officials and fans is baseball. It's hard to imagine a time when there weren't at least three or four players from Latin American countries and perhaps one or two from Japan, Korea or China on a roster. If Major League Baseball had a rule stating that only players born in this country could play, the game would really suffer.

I once heard someone complain that it seemed that all of the doctors he encountered were from foreign countries. He wondered why there weren't more American doctors around. While we do still have our share of dedicated Americans in the health care field, there is no doubt that many foreign-born health care professionals are filling vital positions in keeping us all healthy. The discipline exhibited by students in many other countries has been well documented. Until we can upgrade our education system from preschool through post-grad education, that trend will continue.

Same goes for sports. If we want to see more caucasians scoring the winning baskets or making the double plays, we have to get our kids away from the TV, video games and computers and put a ball in their hands and tell them not to come home until it's time for supper. But only after they get their homework done!