For many the controversy stirred by the remarks of A1 Campanis on Nightline in April 1987 has become a distant memory. But his comments regarding the capacity of blacks to occupy managerial positions only briefly illuminated the ugly realities of racism in sport.

        All the same, the Campanis incident did move some to act. Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth has hired scholar and activist Harry Edwards and former Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander to begin a program of employing more blacks. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle has promised he will then implement an NFL plan. Jesse Jackson and Ben Hooks have held well-publicized meetings with all the commissioners in professional sport.

        Have we become comfortable that all is well once again? Are we again determined to believe that sport is somehow different from the broader society in its treatment of racial issues? With more than a year gone by and with it the public utterances of desires for change, many feel that all is right in sport. While the jury may be out on progress in the pros, it has not even been convened at the college level.

        It is easy to be diverted form addressing the continuing problems confronted by blacks in professional sport. So very many signposts created a series of illusions whose bright lights blinded our nation of sports fans, even some in the black community--at least those who don't want to see beyond the TV screen.

        The NBA, for example, is 75 percent black, major league baseball 25 percent black, and the NFL 54 percent black. Tyson and Spinks together earned more than $35 million for an evening's work. Numerous blacks and whites in each sport are earning a million dollars or more a year, with a few earning two million or more. In 1988, blacks were the highest paid players in basketball (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, $2,500,000 each), baseball (Ozzie Smith, $2,340,000), and football (Bo Jackson, $1,391,750). The pro athlete is indescribably rich, with an average salary of more than $500,00 in the NBA and the major leagues and $200,000 in the NFL; discrimination against blacks seems at an end.

        Blacks are coaching in the NBA, college basketball, and college football; Frank Robinson is again managing in baseball. There are blacks getting college educations as a result of sports. Blacks are Olympic superstars and recognized as such for representing their country.