Wednesday, April 15, 1998 | 10:48 a.m.
HOUSTON -- NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown talked about black athletes using their economic clout. San Diego Padres owner John Moores wondered why a qualified Hispanic coach on his team can't get a nibble at a major league manager's job. Dennis Green inquired why he is among so few black pro football coaches.
It was the kind of exchange President Clinton hoped for when he teamed with an panel of sports figures Tuesday at the second of three planned nationally televised town hall meetings on race.
"I think it's obvious that athletics is leading America toward a more harmonious united society, but we still have more work to do," Clinton said, wrapping up the session at Houston's Wortham Theater.
The program, scheduled for 90 minutes on the cable network ESPN, stretched an extra 15 minutes.
"All of us as Americans should be proud of how far we have come," Clinton said. "At the same time, we should be determined to meet challenges that still exist, because our country is becoming more and more ethnically and racially diverse."
Other panelists included Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson, New York Jets receiver Keyshawn Johnson, track and field star Jackie Joyner-Kersee, ESPN analyst Joe Morgan and Minnesota Vikings coach Green, all of whom are black.
They were joined by San Francisco 49ers president Carmen Policy, University of Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley, and Moores, all of whom are white.
Felipe Lopez, a basketball player at St. John's University, was the lone Hispanic.
Brown, who in nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns gained a reputation as the best running back ever in the NFL, ignited what had been a genteel discussion by chastising his panel colleagues for ignoring economics, particularly the millions of dollars paid to athletes and coaches.
"You have not said to them: 'Why don't you hire black lawyers, agents?'
"We sit up and talk about one more black coach. One more black coach is a symbolic situation. Those black dollars are investment."
But Thompson took exception to Brown's admonishment, noting that when he was just getting started, only a white man would agree to be his agent.
"No African-American would help," he said. "I find it difficult to fire him because he is competent and he is my friend. It hurts me because I am sypathetic for what has occurred."
Thompson also said he received criticism for allowing a white to broadcast his team's games when no one else would and said he is admonished for having few white players, leading him to be labeled both an Uncle Tom and a racist.
"I don't give a darn what any side says," Thompson said.
Clinton, who spent parts of the program with his chin in his hand and nodding in agreement with the comments, responded that he appreciated the honesty of the exchange, that he could agree with Brown, but also respect Thompson's position.
"You're not going to abandon your friends," he said of Thompson. "The point Jim is making is a different one. What he's pointing out is there is still a huge opportunity gap in our society."
Joyner-Kersee and Green concurred.
"For me as a woman, there are things as a woman you have to deal with," she said. "That should not be an issue."
But she pointed out that no one, blacks included, should be forced to invest in places they may not want.
"That's why we live in America, because we have choices," she said.
Green criticized the NFL for using new technology to find and appraise players, but using "the same old system" for picking coaches.
"We have a long way to go," he said.
Policy, credited with building the 49ers into the model NFL franchise, acknowledged that the league "got kind of lazy."
"But the alarm clock went off," he said. "We now realize there is a lack of opportunity that's created by a flawed process."
Clinton's first town hall meeting on race, at Akron, Ohio, covered a wide range of topics. In Houston he narrowed the focus to sports in a way that would engage Americans who might not otherwise want to discuss race issues.
About 1,000 people were in the audience, many of them invited through a ticket distribution process controlled by Democratic congressmen in Houston. A few were selected to pose questions screened in advance by program producers.
"You don't get the masses in that type of forum," said Bill Russell, a black who is a Houston auto dealership manager, as he left the theater.
Some Hispanics who attended, already miffed that Lopez, a St. John's University senior, was the only Hispanic on the panel and was a late addition after complaints about ignoring Hispanics, were not impressed.
"They didn't offer much to the Hispanic community," said Josephine Rocha, 68, of Houston. "They didn't say nothing. It's not right."
Clinton earlier Tuesday tried to placate Hispanic criticism by meeting with a panel of a dozen Houston Hispanic leaders, promising to work to bring more Houston Hispanics into federal appointments.
He acknowledged at the athletic session that Hispanics were the fastest growing ethnic group in the nation, but that high school graduation rates for them were lower than blacks and whites. He said he hoped Hispanic participation in high school athletic programs would encourage them to remain in school.
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