National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

February 10, 1997

Sports groups join together to foster sporting behavior

To promote positive behavior in sports and coordinate efforts toward that end, the national organizations for collegiate, professional, high-school and Olympic sports have joined forces and formed the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance.

The alliance was given an official kickoff January 30 with a news conference in New York conducted by the heads of the National Football League, National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, United States Olympic Committee, NCAA, National Federation of State High School Associations, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and National Junior College Athletic Association.

An outgrowth of a report to the 1996 NCAA Convention by the NCAA Presidents Commission Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct in Intercollegiate Athletics, the alliance has been in the planning stages for more than a year. With the news conference, it was given its official endorsement by the various organizations involved.

The next step will be to create a structure for the alliance and a budget to bring its plans to fruition. A working group of representatives from the nine organizations will meet in the next few weeks to determine where a staff could be housed and how the alliance's efforts can be financed.

Rather than creating a separate entity, one thought is that an alliance staff could be housed at one of the member organizations and funded through contributions from the organizations.

'Focus on Respect'

The initial emphasis will be "Focus on Respect" -- of self, of others, of game officials -- to create an environment of positive sports behavior. Other areas of emphasis will be diversity, academic and social achievement, substance abuse, violence, and the values of sports.

The alliance wants to take advantage of the importance sports play in the lives of youth to get the message out that sports can be a positive influence.

"The values sports are able to give young people play a very critical role in their development," Leonard Coleman, president of Major League Baseball's National League, said. "We want to stress positive values of teamwork, respect and leadership.

"These are important things we want to get across to promote positive citizenship."

The alliance hopes to create a logo and to use public service announcements to help spread its message.

Rather than start from scratch, the alliance plans to use existing programs that already reach youth to coordinate the outreach effort. Daniel Boggan Jr., NCAA chief operating officer and moderator of the news conference, said NCAA programs that will be useful vehicles for delivery of the alliance's message include CHAMPS/Life Skills programs, the National Youth Sports Program, YES clinics, diversity workshops and proposed championships welcome centers.

The other organizations also have programs that will be used to convey the alliance's message, he said.

The high-school federation is planning a curriculum component addressing citizenship through sports. The philosophy is that the younger the athletes are, the easier it is to reach them with the message about positive sports behavior.

Coaches a focal point

Coaches are considered a focal point for efforts to promote positive behavior in sports because of their contact with student-athletes. The hope is that through providing resources and support to coaches, more positive changes can be effected. But alliance organizers noted that not all of the emphasis can be placed on the coaches; shared responsibility should be exhibited by sports leaders, parents and athletics administrators.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said at the news conference that the campaign to stress the positive side of sports is a priority of all of the organizations involved. He challenged the other organizations to provide financial and moral support for the effort.

"Sports has an opportunity in a positive and negative way to affect the views of a nation on subjects like respect, civility and ethical behavior," Stern said. "We should be judged harshly if we don't work as hard as we can as collectively as we can to have a positive effect on these subjects."

Also participating in the news conference were Gary Bettman, NHL commissioner; Neil Austrian, president/chief operating officer of the NFL; Richard D. Schultz, USOC executive director; William R. Patterson, NAIA executive vice-president and interim chief executive officer; Cedric W. Dempsey, NCAA executive director; Robert F. Kanaby, executive director of the high-school federation; and Mary Ellen Leicht, assistant executive director of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Athletes as role models

One topic of discussion at the news conference was athletes' positions as role models, whether they choose to be or not. Stern noted that youth mimic behavior -- good and bad -- that they see on televised games but said the alliance's purpose was not behavior modification per se. However, athletes need to accept that they are role models, he said.

Dempsey chastised athletes who refuse to accept their obligations as role models, saying they are blind to their responsibilities as adults.

Said Austrian, "Whether they want to be or don't want to be, players are role models, and enlightened people realize that."

Organizers of the alliance do not expect to see change overnight, but they say the program may be evaluated in whether a change in the behavior of athletes is apparent over time.

"This is a marathon, not a sprint," Schultz said. "We see it as a unique opportunity to work together and have a dynamic impact on society."

Further information about the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance can be obtained from Boggan at the NCAA (913/339-1906).