Minorities Wear Uniforms, Not Suits, For Seattle Pro Teams -- Racial Composition In Offices Doesn't Reflect Playing Field

As sales and marketing director and part-time offensive line coach for the Seattle Seahawks, Reggie McKenzie travels in two worlds, both in orbit within the team's Kirkland facility.

In one, he squeezes dollars out of corporate executives. In the other, he coaxes sweat from football players.

But most distinctly, in one world he works among white people; in the other, black.

The rare player to move into a front-office job, McKenzie laments that while 59 percent of the players are African American, only 10 percent of the club's other employees are black.

"It should reflect what the product is, and that's the players on the field," said McKenzie, who is African American. "I mean, we're in the 1990s."

Yet, the Seahawks are the local diversity champs, in a Seattle Times survey of the area's three professional sports teams. In all, 16 percent of the club's nonplayers are minorities, compared with 61 percent of the players.

Only 3 percent of the Mariners' staff is African American, compared with 13 percent for the team, based on the list of employees in the team's media directory. Minorities make up 6 percent of the nonplayers, 24 percent of the players.

Sonics have greatest disparity

The SuperSonics have the greatest disparity between those in uniforms and those in suits - African Americans account for 7 percent of the staff, 85 percent of the players. The Sonics also have two Hispanic staff members, bringing their minority representation to 10 percent.

The Sonics' numbers dropped with the departure of an accounting employee who Monday filed a complaint with the city and federal agencies alleging he was fired because he is black.

Whether or not racism plays any factor in the hiring practices of the three clubs, the makeup of their front offices is drawing attention for being notably white in an industry whose products are largely minority-driven.

Groups studying the front-office hiring records of professional sports teams do not rank each of the Seattle teams against other teams in their respective leagues, but say the numbers appear to fit the national pattern in which minorities are rare in management.

"The last time I saw that kind of black-white breakdown, it was called slavery," said Charles Farrell, national director of the Rainbow Commission for Fairness in Athletics, a division of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition.

Top officials at the local clubs concede that more minorities are needed in management, but deny that race plays a factor in their hiring practices. They say they use the same criteria in selecting players - those who seem best qualified for the job.

"Times are changing, but there's certainly no discriminatory practices here, nor are there any quotas," said Tom Flores, general manager and head coach of the Seahawks.

"We, like the rest of America, need to be more pro-active in this area," said John Dresel, executive vice president of the Sonics.

"The only thing we can do is look ahead, not look back," said Randy Adamack, vice president of communications for the Mariners. "As positions come open, (minority hiring) is something we definitely want to improve on."

Two in top decision-making roles

Flores, who is Hispanic, is one of only two minorities in key decision-making roles on the three clubs. The other is Paul Isaki, who is Asian American and one of six vice presidents with the Mariners. The franchises' team chairmen, presidents and general managers are all white.

For the most part, the nonplayer employees who are African American - six with the Seahawks, four with the Sonics, two with the Mariners - are confined to clerical or assistant-coaching positions. None is in positions where he or she can affect club matters in a broad way.

Flores defends his club. "We're judged by one thing, how many games we win. And the majority of the people who are doing the winning for us" - the players - "are black."

But the scarcity of black employees in the front office sends the dangerous message to African-American youth that they can only expect to play sports, not run them, said Oscar Eason, director of The Seattle Core Group, an advocacy group for African-American community leaders.

"Even if it isn't bigotry and discrimination, what it translates into is a kind of racism," Eason said. "On one hand, they're saying it's fine for you to get knocked around, but you don't have the brains to punch keys on a PC."

Several studies done or in progress

Formed after Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was punished by baseball for racist comments, the Rainbow Commission this year completed surveys on every team in Major League Baseball and the NBA. They plan to look at NFL clubs this season.

The commission's findings largely mirror more up-to-date studies done by The Times, although the commission included game-day statisticians, scoreboard operators and other part-time employees not listed in this season's directory. The commission made several errors, for instance listing Steve Scheffler, a white player, as black.

None of the three local teams cooperated this year with another prominent organization reviewing the issue, the Center for the Study of Sport in Society, at Northeastern University in Boston, said Jeff Benedict, co-author of the report. About three-fourths of the NBA teams, two-thirds of the NFL teams and one-third of the baseball clubs responded to surveys on the racial makeup of their staffs, he said.

All three Seattle teams cooperated with The Times' survey.

Seattle Mayor Norm Rice also has questioned the Sonics about their employment of African Americans in front-office positions. In April, Sonic owner Barry Ackerley responded with a letter to Rice saying that 13 percent of the "nonbasketball" staff is African American, and that three of the seven most recent job openings were filled by African Americans.

"The people responsible for running the Sonics organization on a day-to-day basis are sensitive to trying to achieve total balance within the organization, while still attempting to hire the best person qualified at such time that position comes open," Ackerley wrote.

Each of the four African Americans currently with the Sonics works on the business side, where Dresel oversees a staff of 41. President Bob Whitsitt handles the basketball end, where the Sonics have had three black head coaches during Ackerley's tenure. They currently have no African American coaches or scouts.

The former Sonic employee who filed a discrimination complaint with the Seattle Human Rights Department, Russell Jones, said he heard no racial slurs from other employees. But, he said, he was never made to feel welcome at the office.

"If I was in a desert with my car broken down, none of them would stop to help," said Jones, who worked 18 months with the club. "They're phony people."

David Perry, who as manager of corporate and broadcast sponsorships is the highest-ranking black employee for the Sonics, said working for the club has been "one of the best experiences I've ever had." He said the lack of diversity on staff is "completely unintentional" and reflects the situation at other companies.

Also, few jobs are available because of the small size of the sports industry, Perry said. And when those positions come open, the clubs are flooded with applicants.

Slow turnover slows efforts

McKenzie concedes that diversifying the Seahawk staff is difficult without firing people. Excluding coaches and players, almost all of the current employees have been with the club since before Ken Behring bought the team in 1988.

"Things will happen, but not overnight," Flores said.

None of the three clubs has specific plans to identify and hire minority candidates. When filling positions, they often seek recommendations from league offices or well-established contacts on other teams.

Farrell, of the Rainbow commission, said teams in general need to recruit from industries outside sports. "They're pros at finding athletic talent, but amateurs, or discriminators, when trying to find other kinds of talent."

A prominent headhunter who specializes in locating front-office talent said none of the 20 to 30 pro clubs he works for has ever rejected a candidate for racial reasons. In some cases for midlevel positions, they have made racial criteria a priority, said Jerry Fellenstein, of Teamwork Consulting Inc. of Cleveland.

But for the top positions, no team has ever asked him to specifically find a minority candidate, Fellenstein said. "I don't care if they have quotas or not, owners are going to hire the best person qualified. It gets serious at that point."

Former player works for future

McKenzie is serious, too. He wants to become a general manager or president of an NFL team, and hopes the chance will be there someday in a league that has no African Americans in either position today.

During his playing career, McKenzie worked at businesses in the offseasons to prepare him for opportunities after football. But he wonders how far he can go in the NFL, where former players are rare enough in front offices that he's still seen as an anomaly.

"They say it's great that they gave you a job," he said. "I say I wasn't `given' a job. I worked for it."