The Wrong Message for Black Male Athletes

When Malcolm Wooldridge grew big and quick, when he became a high school football star, everyone said the same thing. Classmates and teachers told him. So did people around his Florida hometown.

You’ve got it made, they said. You’ll get a college scholarship.

The recruiters who came to watch him play only reinforced this notion. Suddenly homework and grades seemed less important as the 6-foot-2, 300-pound teenager devoted himself to taking care of business on the football field.

“My mom would sit there and talk to me about school,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ ”

For years, African American educators have worried that young black men such as Wooldridge are especially prone to getting the wrong idea, latching on to sports as the best -- if not only -- path to college. Now, these experts say, a recent report from the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. lends credence to their suspicions.

Ten percent of black males enrolled as undergraduates at the nation’s largest universities were identified as scholarship athletes. That percentage was at least four times greater than for any other ethnic group.

And statistics show that young black men, having played their way onto campus, are more likely to struggle in the classroom.

Not that educators want to throw sports out with the bathwater. They still see athletics as a way to get young men into college and give them a chance to become good students.

But they also see universities recruiting blacks as athletes first. They see sports playing a disproportionate role and question the influence of parents, culture and the earliest years of schooling.

Genethia Hudley Hayes, a Los Angeles Unified School District board member, said black teens are encouraged to develop their athletic skills but are rarely challenged academically, often placed in the easiest classes possible. “We’re not preparing them to be admitted or compete [in college],” she said.

Wooldridge’s parents feared as much. They tried to counteract the adulation from all around, pleading with him to strike a balance between athletics and academics. But, as he recalled, “you don’t listen until something bad happens.”

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‘A Shame’

With college football in its bowl season -- an annual gala of marching bands, brightly painted fields and nationally televised games -- the NCAA has touted its annual report as evidence of an overall rise in graduation rates among student-athletes in the nation’s 324 largest (classified as Division I) schools.

The findings are gleaned from statistics colleges supply each year to the U.S. Department of Education. But a close examination reveals a less-than-encouraging story for black males.

In the 2000-01 academic year, black males numbered only 122,854 out of 3 million, about 4%, of the overall student body at Division I universities. White males, by comparison, numbered more than a million, or about 33%.

In athletics, the 10% participation for black males was significantly higher than rates for white (2.3%), Hispanic (1.5% of 81,950) and Asian (0.6% of 102,658) males. The rate for black females was 2.3%, roughly the same as the overall percentage.

The situation at the two major local universities was even more lopsided. At USC, there were 337 black males in a student population of 15,057 (2.2%). At UCLA, the number was 370 of 23,873 (1.5%). At both schools, almost 16% of black males participated in sports.

Intercollegiate athletics are an important part of college life, “so participation is terrific,” said Michael Nettles, an education professor at the University of Michigan. But he considers the statistical imbalance worrisome.

Professor John H. Stanfield II, chairman of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University, has another term for it: “a shame.”

Stanfield believes the African American community tells girls: “Take care of yourself, get as much education as you can, become professionally independent.” He said boys get a different message. “The notion that sports is the only meal ticket is what parents tell kids,” he said.

That wasn’t the case with Wooldridge.

His parents grew concerned when his name appeared in the newspaper and people recognized him in restaurants because of his football exploits. Even Wooldridge suspected he was receiving passing grades for minimal work. “Man, the teachers bent over backward to keep you on the field,” he said.

In 1999, he graduated from Olympic Heights High in Boca Raton as a prized recruit, but his standardized test scores were not high enough to satisfy NCAA requirements. Instead of going to college, he enrolled in a military academy for what amounted to a fifth year of high school.

“Sometimes culture will send you explicit messages and subtle messages,” mused his father, David, who played football at Murray State University in Kentucky. “Malcolm had some decisions to make.”

A year at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia got Wooldridge his qualifying scores but did little to change his attitude.

He is a massive young man with a smile to match, articulate and pleasant. After he enrolled at USC in the fall of 2000, he and several teammates came to the aid of a female student who fell from her dorm room window and was impaled on a fence.

But he often coasted in practice, his coaches complained, and he could be seen running extra laps as punishment for skipping classes. “I still thought I’d get grades just because I played football,” he said.

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An Opportunity Wasted

Wooldridge was about to join another statistical group that troubles educators -- young men who reach college on athletic scholarships but fail in class.

Overall, 58% of students at Division I schools graduate in six years. The NCAA was touting its recent survey because student-athletes now graduate at a rate of 60%.

But when it comes to black male athletes, that rate drops to 43%. In football and basketball -- where the great majority of black males play -- the numbers are 45% and 35%, respectively.

“Not only are poor black children failing,” Stanfield said, “even middle-class blacks are failing.”

Like the professor, USC cornerback Darrell Rideaux suspects the problem might begin in homes where parents have no college experience.

“They talk about sports because they know sports,” the Long Beach native said. “When it comes to academics, those parents might be uncomfortable.”

Educators grumble that many young players display effort and discipline on the field, but do not transfer these qualities to the classroom.

There is also an issue of culture. Experts such as Stanfield wonder whether the glorification of sport -- which crosses boundaries of color -- is especially prevalent among blacks. Hudley Hayes suspects black men underachieve because society expects less of them in school.

Stanfield places some blame on universities. He sees a lack of “academic programs to attract black males and retain them.”

UCLA, for example, recruits at local high schools that are underrepresented in its student body but “we do not target any specific students because of race or ethnicity,” said Vu Tran, director of undergraduate admissions.

From his perspective, Wooldridge sensed a problem but -- like the experts -- stumbled for an answer. “The white players were totally different,” he said. “For some reason they did better in school. I don’t know why.”

His father has also wrestled with the issue. He has concluded that if anyone should be blamed, it is the young men who squander their opportunities for a college education. Young men such as his son.

White kids on Malcolm’s high school teams “went through the same thing,” David Wooldridge said. “They were treated special by teachers, other students, by people in the community. This issue has nothing to do with how kids are treated, it has to do with kids not having their priorities straight.”

That is why many educators still consider sports a valuable resource. They believe young men drawn to college solely by athletics can eventually become good students. Teenagers from low-income families might have no better chance to attend an expensive university.

“Don’t tell someone not to go out for the team,” said Ronald Ferguson, an economist who studies education at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. “Those guys deserve to be on the team.”

Local athletes such as UCLA tight end Marcedes Lewis and USC middle linebacker Mike Pollard consider themselves examples. If not for his football scholarship, Pollard figures he would be living with his parents and might not be in school.

The senior, majoring in international relations, said: “As long as you end up getting your degree, it doesn’t matter how you got to college.”

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A Lesson Learned

Still, educators fret over the numbers. If sports play a disproportionate role in the lives of young black men, athletes are not the only ones who suffer.

“It tends to make black males who are not athletically inclined assume they have no options,” Stanfield said. “It’s telling them they can’t be thinkers or intellectual.”

Kellen Winslow knows all about the message that resonates through the African American community. He was a standout tight end at the University of Missouri and in the NFL for many years. His son, Kellen Jr., plays for the University of Miami.

“There is a tendency for people to be drawn to an industry ... because they have role models in that industry,” he said. “There are not enough [black] role models in medicine, law, politics, on and on. In sports, kids understand success is carrying a football or basketball.”

While his son was in high school and being courted by numerous universities, the elder Winslow made a point of asking recruiters about academics on their campuses and reminding Kellen Jr. “you have to do something besides play sports.”

Parents can play a key role in addressing the concerns raised by the recent NCAA statistics, experts say. Church and community groups can also help stress the importance of academics.

“The black community has to stand up and say this portrayal of us is not who we are as a people,” Hudley Hayes said. “We have to be willing to reach out.”

Just ask Lewis, the UCLA tight end. Some of his former teammates can only watch from the sideline these days, because they did not qualify academically.

“They paid the price,” he said. “They’re sitting at home.”

That’s where Wooldridge is.

His grades at USC were low enough that he and his coaches agreed he should leave school last winter. While the Trojans enjoy one of their best seasons in decades -- they face Iowa in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2 -- he is finishing the fall semester at Harper College in Palatine, Ill., near his family’s new home.

The adulation has not gone away. Recruiters are knocking on his door because he was a junior college All-American this season. But his grades have improved because he no longer expects preferential treatment. The 22-year-old says he will approach university life with a different attitude this time.

“I’m thinking a lot more about academics, not just football,” he said. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Male athletes on scholarship

At Division I universities nationwide, nearly 10% of black male students are on athletic scholarships. That figure is only 2.28% for white male students. At UCLA and USC, nearly 16% of black male students are receiving some sort of athletic scholarship.

Black male student enrollment

National Division I

Non-athletes -- 90.05

Athletes -- 9.95

UCLA

Non-athletes --84.32

Athletes -- 15.68

USC

Non-athletes -- 84.27

Athletes -- 15.73

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Male student enrollment

National Division I

White

Students -- 1,005,406

Percent who are athletes -- 2.28%

Black

Students -- 122,854

Percent who are athletes -- 9.95%

Asian**

Students -- 102,658

Percent who are athletes -- 0.56%

Latino

Students -- 81,950

Percent who are athletes -- 1.50%

Other

Students -- 63,352

Percent who are athletes -- 2.25%

Non-resident

Students -- 48,725

Percent who are athletes -- 5.77%

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UCLA

White

Students -- 3,853

Percent who are athletes -- 2.54%

Black

Students -- 370

Percent who are athletes -- 15.68%

Asian**

Students -- 4,011

Percent who are athletes -- 0.20%

Latino

Students -- 1,375

Percent who are athletes -- 0.87%

Other

Students -- 900

Percent who are athletes -- 1.89%

Non-resident

Students -- 318

Percent who are athletes -- 2.20%

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USC

White

Students -- 3,793

Percent who are athletes -- 1.90%

Black

Students -- 337

Percent who are athletes -- 15.73%

Asian**

Students -- 1,618

Percent who are athletes -- 0.31%

Latino

Students -- 965

Percent who are athletes -- 0.62%

Other

Students -- 206

Percent who are athletes -- 15.53%

Non-resident

Students -- 582

Percent who are athletes -- 4.81%

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Note: Enrollments for fall 2000-01; **Includes Pacific Islanders

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Source: NCAA - Researched by Times graphics reporter Kristen Walbolt