Charlie Whitcomb is a soft-spoken man with a loud message. The message -- that of inclusion and diversity -- is something Whitcomb has diplomatically voiced for more than a decade.

Whitcomb recently ended perhaps the longest term in NCAA history -- and in some respects one of the most important -- as chair of a committee when he closed his tenure with the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC) September 1. While a number of coincidences kept the San Jose State University faculty athletics representative as the only chair MOIC has had since its inception in 1991, it is no coincidence that NCAA attention to diversity issues has increased exponentially under Whitcomb's watch.

There are a number of reasons for that, and most have Whitcomb's fingerprints on them. The MOIC was the first NCAA group to push for programs designed specifically for the enhancement of opportunities for ethnic minorities in college athletics. From postgraduate scholarships, internships and conference grant initiatives early on to new programs such as the NCAA Fellows, the Summit on Athletics Opportunities for Minority Women and the Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males, the MOIC has maintained the Whitcomb mantra -- access, opportunity and advancement -- loud and clear.

The loud part isn't because of Whitcomb. Anyone who has shared a committee setting with the long-time professor of recreation and leisure studies knows you have to listen carefully to this eloquent man's measured tone. But the clear part is. No one is more succinct about the way things ought to be -- for all minorities -- in intercollegiate athletics.

"He's been a champion in ensuring inclusion at every level in college sports," said Stan Johnson, former NCAA director of professional development and now the executive director of the newly created Minority Opportunities Athletics Association.

Johnson should know. He served as NCAA staff liaison to the MOIC for nine years and developed a close working relationship with the man he calls "an old rascal."

Whitcomb isn't old, but he can be a rascal. He's had to be in order to change the climate in intercollegiate athletics from an exclusive group to a more inclusive one.

"Sometimes in order to effect change you have to make people feel uncomfortable," Whitcomb said, albeit softly.

But it's not easy to spend more than a decade making people feel uncomfortable and yet have those same people regard you as a friend and colleague. Whitcomb has done just that.

"Charlie has an inherent savvy about how to proceed through some controversial issues," said University of California, Irvine, Athletics Director Dan Guerrero. "He's been able to garner a lot of support by not so much compromise but by reaching consensus and being able to be persuasive in a manner that has not been offensive."

An NCAA voice

Whitcomb's NCAA tenure goes back to his days on the NCAA Council in the mid 1980s. During one Council meeting, Whitcomb took a stand on a diversity matter and was pulled aside afterward by then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers, who asked Whitcomb if he'd be willing to serve on a subcommittee devoted to diversity issues.

That group included Whitcomb, University of California, San Diego, Athletics Director Judy Sweet; University of Kansas Athletics Director Bob Frederick; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, law professor Albert M. Witte; and Clemson University dean of admissions B.J. Skelton. In 1991, the subcommittee became a standing NCAA committee -- the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee -- with a different cast of members but with Whitcomb at the helm.

Charged with enhancing opportunities for minority student-athletes, coaches, athletics administrators and officials, Whitcomb made sure the MOIC did just that, and has done so ever since.

One of the first initiatives the committee undertook was to establish postgraduate scholarship and internship programs for ethnic minorities (the Committee on Women's Athletics developed companion programs for women, as well). The grants were given to applicants who expressed a desire to pursue careers in intercollegiate athletics, while the internships were granted to similar applicants who served one-year stints in various departments at the NCAA national office. Both programs have been enormously successful.

Despite the other MOIC programs that followed during the next decade, those first two remain Whitcomb's favorite success stories.

"In a way, those two programs describe what the MOIC is all about, which is providing access and opportunity," he said. "These scholarships and internships are door-openers."

In addition to opening doors, the MOIC under Whitcomb has been about advancement. Recent additions to the MOIC's long list of accomplishments include the NCAA Fellows Leadership Program, the Summit on Athletics Opportunities for Minority Women and the Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males, all of which are designed to develop paths for existing minority administrators to proceed up the athletics career ladder. The Fellows program already has processed two successful classes, while the Leadership Institute in its first year has a full class of 25 promising leaders.

Other initiatives include academic components at National Youth Sports Program camps, Youth Education through Sports clinics for ethnic minorities in nontraditional sports, a careers in athletics video, public service announcements and diversity education seminars and training.

The programs, the initiatives, the messages -- all have developed a network of opportunity where one didn't exist before. It's an emphatic move, Whitcomb said, "for the committee to drive the train instead of ride in the back."

A social voice

While Whitcomb and the MOIC may be driving the train, in some respects the wheels aren't turning fast enough. For all the opportunities that have been created, the number of minority athletics administrators still doesn't mirror the number of minority student-athletes; hiring practices, particularly in football, are called in to question almost annually; and though the MOIC and others plead with college presidents to change the climate, the picture remains cloudy for ethnic minorities in college sports.

Those facts have not deterred Whitcomb. Even now, the MOIC is compiling data on football coaches who might diversify the applicant pool. It is researching the demographics of conference officials in order to provide more opportunities in the officiating profession. And it is looking at initial-eligibility models that might lead to more access for entering ethnic minority students. The MOIC also is being used as a sounding board for other groups. The NCAA Football Oversight Committee, for example, has asked the MOIC for input on diversity issues, as has the Football Issues Committee, the Basketball Issues Committee and others.

That's a far cry from the limited agenda the first MOIC undertook.

"Certainly, the issues have broadened," Whitcomb said. "The scope of diversity has become more encompassing, including women's issues, hiring issues, participation rates for student-athletes, concern for student-athlete welfare, and graduation rates in sports with high minority concentrations. Issues also have expanded beyond just African-Americans, but all minorities."

Witness the recent developments with American Indian mascots, nicknames and imagery. The MOIC is involved, having agreed in July to develop a "briefing document" that puts the issue in perspective so that other NCAA entities can make informed decisions. Whitcomb said committee members also are aware that Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans are facing the same kinds of issues that African Americans have faced. They know that the issues are ongoing.

"The one thing that hasn't changed, though, is the commitment of the committee members," Whitcomb said. "I may have served as the chair, but I was more of a facilitator for what always has been a group of some pretty strong committee members. The members may change but the commitment won't. Nor will the diversity within the group. In gender, race and background, the MOIC always has been a collection of diverse individuals. We can't practice diversity if we're not diverse in our thinking."

A voice of integrity

Whitcomb is a 1971 graduate of San Jose State's penology program. He earned a master's degree in recreation administration from San Jose State in 1973 and a doctorate in education from the University of Northern Colorado in 1976.

At Whitcomb's core lies a teacher. He has been one since 1971, starting as an assistant professor of recreation and leisure studies at San Jose State. Since then, he's climbed in status to full professor, and he's served as department chair twice, once for a 10-year stint and again for the last two years. He was the university's ombudsman for four years, and he's been the school's faculty athletics representative since 1983. When he agreed to the latter, he did so on one condition -- that the school's athletics program continue to be conducted with integrity.

Integrity is a key word for Whitcomb. No committee member during Whitcomb's tenure with the MOIC would dispute that it is central to the way he promotes committee initiatives. It also contributes to the way Whitcomb positions himself as an agent of change. Soft-spoken, but determined and with integrity.

"The best way to effect change is to study the climate," Whitcomb said of how he "works the crowd" in spreading the MOIC message. "If it's cold outside, I put on a coat. I work to understand the people I'll be interacting with and look for ways to bring about the type of equity and justice that I believe is real."

That's why alliances are so important to Whitcomb and the MOIC. The MOIC's work with the Committee on Women's Athletics to develop the Summit on Athletics Opportunities for Minority Women is a good example. Oddly enough, minority women are a constituency whose needs should be met by both NCAA committees but sometimes do not get the attention they need. The summit was a way to bridge that gap. In two short years, the summit has led to many initiatives, including the NCAA's funding an additional NACWAA/HERS Institute.

"In the past few years, the CWA and the MOIC have started working more collaboratively on issues that impact both women and minorities," said Whitcomb. "We are now moving ahead with the same vigor for minority women as we have for minority men."

The MOIC also has established beneficial relationships with other minority organizations, including the Black Coaches Association, the Rainbow Coalition, the Black Women in Sports Foundation and the Congressional Black Caucus.

"We have to build alliances," Whitcomb said. "There's no sense in backing people into corners to where they come out fighting. We have to figure out how to strengthen alliances and help folks to realize we want the same thing. You don't get anything done if you get people upset."

Though Whitcomb may have chaired his last meeting with the MOIC, the NCAA probably hasn't seen the last of this "old rascal." He is still working as one of the initial-eligibility consultants, a group appointed two years ago by the Division I Board of Directors to review the NCAA's initial-eligibility standards. And in addition to his long service with the MOIC, Whitcomb also has been a member of the Division I Management Council, the Division I Committee on Athletics Certification and the Academic Requirements Committee, so it stands to reason that he could resurface. After all, there still is work to be done.

"I hope before I'm totally out of sight that the initial-eligibility standards will change," he said of what's in store for the future. "That's been real important to me because it's been a long time coming."

Whitcomb also wants to see something else that he feels has been a long time coming -- an NCAA presidential agenda with diversity as Item No. 1. Though Whitcomb is complimentary of each NCAA executive director and president for whom he has worked (Byers, Richard D. Schultz and Cedric W. Dempsey) and of the leadership groups within the governance structure that have supported diversity issues, he laments that diversity has never been the very top priority.

"The MOIC has tried and tried to do this, but diversity has never been No. 1," Whitcomb said. "We've seen many things on various agendas that have been No. 1 -- student-athlete welfare, gender equity -- but never diversity."

Whitcomb believes that the data the committee has compiled through the Race Demographics Study and other surveys eventually will convince people to adopt a different way of thinking.

"But we know things haven't been right, and we know we have so much data to show that they haven't been right. As professionals, practitioners and academicians, we need to read the data and ask how to change and make significant improvements. There are folks out there who are willing to do just that."

The kinds of folks to which Whitcomb refers still serve on the MOIC, as well as on other NCAA groups. He said their role is to keep making people feel uncomfortable by asking the tough questions, by being the NCAA's social conscience.

"We've got to continually stay on top of it and make people feel uncomfortable -- make people remember why they decided to have the MOIC in the first place."

Whitcomb said that last part softly, but it came across as a quiet roar. Certainly, this is a man who, though he has been relieved from his committee watch, hasn't left his post as an overseer of the NCAA diversity picture.

If nothing else, he's ready and available to -- very quietly -- train a successor.

Peer voices

What colleagues say about Charlie Whitcomb:

"Over the years, minority issues and opportun ities have largely been influenced by Charlie's leadership. What impresses me most about him is that he's always dealt with these issues while looking at the larger NCAA mission, looking at it with perspective and objectivity, and also through the filter of his own value system. In doing so, he's made a significant statement for minority rights and the progress that can be made for those individuals in our Association. He's a tireless worker, a terrific spokesperson for the issues, and he's been true to the calling."

Dan Guerrero (former MOIC member), athletics director, University of California, Irvine

"He has an exceptional ability to ensure that voices are heard and that the message gets out about the MOIC. He's able to make you hear what he's saying and also make sure the word gets out because of the way he presents it -- he's a listener, he receives and he can deliver because of the way he can communicate. He's very strong in his commitment, and has an ability to earn your support once he has presented his ideas on an issue."

Peggy Green (current MOIC member), senior woman administrator, Fayetteville State University

"Charlie gave us some leadership and insight when the committee needed it in its formative years. The Association is certainly better off from the work that the MOIC and Charlie have done. The committee through Charlie's leadership has been on the cutting edge of some important social issues that have affected the NCAA over the years -- student-athlete opportunity and professional opportunities for people to create the needed diversity within our industry. One of the unique things about Charlie is that he can bring the insight of both athletics and academics to the discussion. He also always has the experience of the student-athlete at heart of all the thoughts and efforts on any issue, which has given the committee an important foundation from which to address those issues."

Chris Monasch (former MOIC member), commissioner, America East Conference

"Over the years, the MOIC moved from being a little-known committee to one that the structure looks to for direction when there is a significant issue. And let's face it, there's not an issue in the NCAA Manual that doesn't affect minority participation. Charlie has spearheaded a lot of those issues and has had to be the person out front."

Stan Johnson (former NCAA staff liaison to the MOIC), executive director, Minority Opportunities Athletics Association