A TRULY GREAT ROLE MODEL

Professional athletes, with their puffed-up egos, are held up as role models for America's youths, especially for its minority youths. Football players with their showboating endzone antics and undereducated basketball players are held out as beacons of hope for escaping from the ghetto.

Unfortunately, pro-athletes are poor role models even when on their best behavior because the chances of some ghetto youth making it to the pros are slim to none. And rarely does a week pass by without reports of a pro being arrested for the type of misconduct common among many ghetto youths.

Most pros fail to obtain a college degree. That is not because they did not need one with their outrageous salaries, but because they cannot pass freshman English or the required math and science courses. How then do they manage to stay in school for the duration of their playing elegibility?

I can describe the practice of the university from which I graduated and which I suspect is what is done in most colleges and universities. The athletes who could not pass freshman English were enrolled in every available one-credit-hour physical education activity course. Badminton and ping pong are just two examples, and I am not kidding.

By receiving a grade of "A" in each of these courses they maintained the minimum overall grade point average required to remain enrolled in school. In most of these courses, they were not even required to attend classes. The whole practice is nothing but a sham.

All the athletes at my university were white. At that time, black athletes could only attend black schools. Today, many black athletes are poorly prepared academically. This is especially true of black basketball players, most having spent their pre-college days shooting hoops instead of paying attention to their school work. Some of these guys couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted them the "c" and the "t".

Why do colleges admit these academically deficient athletes? Football and basketball are big-time money makers. The colleges milk these guys for what they're worth for as long as they are eligible to play. Once their playing days are over with, they are tossed out sans a degree. And, most of these guys never make it in the pros.

A role model should be someone who has managed to succeed in the face of adversity such as a severe physical disability. If black kids need a role model, and they surely do, they should not look to a football or basketball player, but to someone like Ralph Green, a black paralympics skier.

Ralph Green grew up in the drug infested and violence plagued Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. He did not get involved with the gangs that were prevalent in his neighborhood. He attended school, made good grades and, at 15, was a promising quarterback on his high school football team.

In 1992, while walking with a friend, Ralph was shot down for no reason on a street corner in his neighborhood. He was severely wounded and remained in a coma for several days. He recovered, but only after his left leg had to amputated.

With the encouragement of his mother, Ralph was determined not to let his handicap get the better of him. His mother told reporters, "As good as he was in football, he'll be even better in something else." And sure enough, he was.

Today, Ralph is one of the best paralympic skiers in the world. Win or lose, he is a real champion. He puts to shame all those purported pro football and basketball role models. Ralph Green is a truly great role model for all youths, no matter the color of their skin.