COLUMN: True Sports Medicine

From Paul Godinez's "Word Up G," Fall '95 From Paul Godinez's "Word Up G," Fall '95The understatement of the year would have to be that race relations are not that good in this country. The recent conservative backlash against affirmative action and the recent outbursts over the president of Rutgers University who "misspoke" spell out a widening rift between black and white America. There really is not much in common between black and white students. They have far different music tastes, different dormitories and segregated fraternities keeping social interaction at a minimum. The appearance of blacks at white fraternity parties or vice versa is very uncommon. Outside of the classroom, there really is not a diversified social community that the administration wants all these perspectives to think we have. Where is the most interaction of black and white cultures facilitated on this campus? On the courts in Gimble Gymnasium with Hutch's courts running a close second. It is the sports programs like football, basketball, baseball and lacrosse where progressive interaction is taking place. The intramural basketball games are games between squads of guys like Bull Moose or Gang Green who love to play and play it well. But why is the greatest medium athletics and not the Edmund Burke Society or The Daily Pennsylvanian? The immense popularity of sports in American society is the outstanding cultural factor. Ethnic groups and races boast of their famous athletes, their Michael Jordan or Rocky Marciano or Alexi Lalas. Admiration for sports heroes crosses racial barriers. My fascination with Michael Jordan, not unlike kids my age, was not out of rebellion but pure admiration for the greatest basketball player ever. This contrary to all those Bostonians who boast of Larry Bird. The Olympics are the periodic bonding of the different Americas in a common chorus of support for America's finest, whether they are Oscar de la Hoya, Mary Lou Retton, or Jesse Owens. This popularity is due to the relative ease with which sports can be organized. All that is needed is a ball, and not always the right one. The greatest American sport not commercialized is stickball, whose requirements are a measly tennis ball and any broom handle a kid can lay his hands on. Games can be played on lunch breaks, Sunday afternoons, or recess period. Every four eyed kid or senior citizen wants to play and, once in a while, will shock that jock too wrapped up in their own ability. My first glimpse of Penn came in a game of touch football on a muddy Hill House field. It was from that game and the one the following day where friendships were formed and persevered over the years. My first meal in the dining commons was a unique experience. There I was sitting across from a perfect stranger of a different race. What was the ice breaker? Sports, of course. It turned out we had lots in common and that conversation has blossomed into a friendly relationship. My best friend and I first were competitors in track practice during freshmen year of high school. The countless hours in high school spent over the years training and discussing life are invaluable memories. The time we spent hopping the fence to run on Lower Merion's track in the pitch dark last summer were times when philosophies of life and women and the future were exchanged during stretching and breaks between wind sprints. The fact that we were from the opposing sides of American society was a subject of mutual jabbing but has led to a mature relationship grounded in our mutually competitive spirits and open minds. There was no other way we would have meet. The problem for America is transferring the success of athletics in alleviating racial tension into breaking down the racial barriers in the academic environment and in society. The secret may lie in the competitive nature of sports. The participants are concerned with winning, whether it is a pick up game or the Super Bowl. The individuals on the team are focused on that one common goal. Race, religion, and all other social distinctions are insignificant. If an individual can make a significant contribution, he or she is welcomed onto the squad. The good athletes rely on each other rather than their individual talent to pull the team to victory. American society lacks that common goal. Except during wartime, Americans are too engrossed in individual self-gratification. Our society's perception of success means some one will get stepped on, which leads to prejudice. People also listen to harbored prejudices of the elders, thus securing the furthering of ignorance in American society. Society lacks the one prime goal. Each individual is out to win for themselves, failing to see that society's failures are the net result of their failure to cooperate. American society continues to strive for racial harmony. Perhaps they could take a hint from the sandlot baseball games and the regulars at the South Ardmore Park basketball courts. Maybe a pick up game of touch football would do some people on this campus good. Realize that team work is the way to come out victorious in the end. Do not forsake the integrity of the team because of differences between players. The opportunity to advance the whole squad is the bottom line. Whose got next game?