Richard Lapchick

Richard E. Lapchick, son of the famous Original Celtic center who became a legendary coach for St. John's and the NBA Knicks, Joe Lapchick, is often referred to as the “social conscience of sport.” Lapchick received his nickname because of his work with race relations and his ability to use sport to combat racial, gender and social inequities in society, both in the United States and internationally. He is a human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, internationally recognized expert on sports issues, scholar and author.^[1]

The early years

Lapchick’s life passion was sparked in Germany at the age of 14 while touring the Nazi internment camps of Dachau. Coincidentally, he was in Europe during the 1960 Summer Olympic Games and discovered the tremendous impact sport has to cross all lines, color, creed and religion. Thus, his dream to use sport as a vehicle for social change was born. It reinforced his early experiences witnessing public hostility toward his father when, as the Coach of the New York Knicks, he signed Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the NBA’s first African-American player in 1950.^[2]

Activist work

In the 1970s, Lapchick started fighting apartheid and led the boycott of the South African participation in international sport events, the Davis Cup in particular.^[3] His activism led to a personal invitation from Nelson Mandela upon his presidential inauguration in 1994 after anti-apartheid movements were successful.

Lapchick founded the Center for the Study of Sport in Society (CSSS) in 1984 at Boston’s Northeastern University. He served as Director for 17 years and is now the Director Emeritus. The Center has attracted national attention to its pioneering efforts to ensure the education of athletes from junior high school through the professional ranks. The Center's Project TEAMWORK was called "America's most successful violence prevention program" by public opinion analyst Lou Harris. It won the Peter F. Drucker Foundation Award as the nation's most innovative non-profit program and was named by the Clinton Administration as a model for violence prevention.^[4]

One year after the Center’s inception, Lapchick wanted to take its mission national and established the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS). For 25 years, the NCAS has been “creating a better society by focusing on educational attainment and using the power and appeal of sport to positively affect social change.” It is a group of over 230 colleges and universities that created the first of its kind degree completion and community service programs. To date, 29,856 athletes have returned to NCAS member schools. Over 13,700 have graduated. Nationally, the NCAS athletes have worked with more than 18 million students in the school outreach and community service program, which focuses on teaching youth how to improve race relations, develop conflict resolution skills, prevent gender violence and avoid drug and alcohol abuse. They have collectively donated more than 19 million hours of service while member colleges have donated more than $320 million in tuition assistance.^[5]

Academic career

Lapchick was announced as the endowed chair of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida's College of Business Administration in 2001. The DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF is a landmark program that focuses on the business skills necessary for graduates to conduct a successful career in the rapidly changing and dynamic sports industry. In following with Lapchick’s tradition of human rights activism, the curriculum includes courses with an emphasis on diversity, community service and philanthropy, sport and social issues and ethics in addition to UCF’s strong business curriculum. The DeVos Program has been named one of the nation’s top five programs by the Wall Street Journal, the Sports Business Journal and ESPN The Magazine.^[6]

While at the University of Central Florida, he remains President of the NCAS and has established The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) which serves as a comprehensive resource for issues related to gender and race in amateur, collegiate and professional sports. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed Racial and Gender Report Card which tracks the hiring practices of professional and college sport which is published by The Institute which also publishes annual studies on student-athlete graduation rates and racial attitudes in sports. The Institute also monitors some of the critical ethical issues in college and professional sport, including the potential for the exploitation of student-athletes, gambling, performance-enhancing drugs and violence in sport.^[7]

Awards and accolades

Lapchick’s extensive list of honors and awards cover several decades. In 2006, Lapchick was named both the Central Florida Public Citizen of the Year and the Florida Public Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers. Lapchick has been the recipient of numerous humanitarian awards and was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame of the Commonwealth Nations in 1999 in the category of Humanitarian along with Arthur Ashe and Nelson Mandela and received the Ralph Bunche International Peace Award. He joined the greats of Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe and Wilma Rudolph in the CSSS Hall of Fame in 2004.^[8]

In 2009, the Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition and Rev. Jesse Jackson honored him for “lifetime achievement in working for civil rights.” Lifelong friend Kareem Abdul Jabbar requested to present the award to Lapchick on behalf of Rev. Jackson.^[9]

Education and publications

Lapchick received a B.A. from St. John's University in 1967. In 1993, he was named as the outstanding alumnus at the University of Denver where he got his Ph.D. in international race relations in 1973. He has since earned eight honorary degrees.^[10]

Lapchick is currently working on his 15th book which will be published in 2010.^{[dated info]} His literary works include: 100 Trailblazers: Great Women Athletes Who Opened Doors for Future Generations; 100 Pioneers: African-Americans Who Broke Color Barriers in Sport; 100 Heroes: People in Sports Who Make This a Better World; New Game Plan for College Sport; Smashing Barriers: Race and Sport in the New Millennium; Never Before, Never Again: The Stirring Autobiography of Eddie Robinson, the Winningest Coach in the History of College Football; Sport in Society: Equal Opportunity or Business as Usual?; Five Minutes to Midnight: Race and Sport in the 1990s; Rules of the Game: Ethics in College Sport; On the Mark: Putting the Student Back in Student-athlete; Fractured Focus: Sport as a Reflection of Society; Broken Promises: Racism in American Sports; Oppression and Resistance: The Struggle of Women in Southern Africa; Politics of Race and International Sport: The Case of South Africa.^[11]

Lapchick also regularly writes for ESPN.com and The SportsBusiness Journal. He has published over 500 articles and given almost 3,000 speeches.^[12]

References

1. ^ Richard Lapchick, Biography, (http://www.ncasports.org/about/staff-bios/bio-richard-lapchick.shtml) accessed November 12, 2009.
2. ^ Richard Lapchick, Smashing Barriers, (Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 2001), 103-4.
3. ^ Richard Lapchick, Smashing Barriers, (Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 2001), 3-5.
4. ^ Center for the Study of Sport in Society, About Us, (http://www.northeastern.edu/sportinsociety/about/index.html) accessed November 12, 2009.
5. ^ Richard Lapchick, Biography, (http://www.ncasports.org/about/staff-bios/bio-richard-lapchick.shtml) accessed November 12, 2009.
6. ^ Ibid.
7. ^ The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, Who We Are and What We Do, (http://www.tidesport.org/) accessed November 12, 2009.
8. ^ Richard Lapchick, Biography, (http://www.ncasports.org/about/staff-bios/bio-richard-lapchick.shtml) accessed November 12, 2009.
9. ^ Jon Gabriel, “Richard Lapchick Receives Lifetime Achievement Award,” University of Central Florida Today, July 8, 2009 (http://today.ucf.edu/blog/2009/07/08/rainbow-push-coalition-presents-richard-lapchick-with-lifetime-achievement-award/).
10. ^ Richard Lapchick, Biography, (http://www.ncasports.org/about/staff-bios/bio-richard-lapchick.shtml) accessed November 12, 2009.
11. ^ Richard Lapchick, 100 Trailblazers: Great Women Athletes Who Opened Doors for Future Generations, (Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology, 2009), Preface.
12. ^ Richard Lapchick, Biography, (http://www.ncasports.org/about/staff-bios/bio-richard-lapchick.shtml) accessed November 12, 2009.

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