May 5, 2014

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Donald Sterling isn’t the first owner of a professional sports team to stir controversy and ill will with racist remarks.

Here is a sampling of incendiary rants delivered long before the Los Angeles Clippers owner stuck his foot in his mouth,exposing his true, hateful feelings. In 1978, Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith drew public ridicule and created unrest among his players with statements he made to the Lions Club in Waseca, Minn. Griffith was quoted as saying: “I’ll tell you why wecame to Minnesota. It was when I found out there were only15,000 Blacks here.

"Blacks don’t go to ballgames, but they fill up a rasslin’ ring and put up such a chant it’ll scare you.

“We came to Minnesota because there are good, hard working white people here.”

The Twins, who were originally the Washington Senators, moved to Minnesota in 1961. Rod Carew, a Black Hall of Fame infielder from Panama, was so upset with Griffith’s remarks that he demanded a trade. Carew, who posted a .328 career batting average, signed with the California Angels as a free agent a few months after Griffith’s remarks. No disciplinary action was taken against Griffith by the American League Ironically, Griffith, who died in 1999, was buried in Washington.

Then there was Marge Schott, owner of the Cincinnati Reds. Schott was overheard by employees making disparaging remarks about African-Americans, Jewish and Japanese persons.She also was heard giving verbal support for the Nazi party in Germany and Adolf Hitler. Schott was banned by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn fromher administrative duties  with the Reds from 1996 to 1998.

She later sold her majority share of the club. Ms. Schott also was fined $250,000 in 1993, by Kuhn, for insensitive statements. In 1979, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien was quoted as saying that, ideally, his NBA roster would be “50percent White because White fans like players that look like themselves.”

Then there was the all-time bigot, George Preston Marshall,owner of the pro football team in Washington. Marshall was proud to be a racist and did not sign ablack player until 1962, some 15 years after the rest of the NFLbroke the color line. Marshall was quoted as saying: “I’ll start signing Black players when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing White players.”

It wasn’t until Washington moved from privately owned Griffith Stadium to D.C. Stadium (later called Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) that Mr. Marshall gave in.Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall threatened to revoke Marshall’s right to use the stadium built on federal land if he did not open his roster to Black players. Bobby Mitchell and John Nisby became Washington’s first Black players in 1962.