Racial and Gender Report Card, 2003: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Hiring Practices of the National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, Women's National Basketball Association, and NCAA and Its Member Institutions.

This is the 12th issue of the "Racial and Gender Report Card," which assesses hiring practices of women and people of color in U.S. professional and amateur sports and sporting organizations. It considers the composition of players, coaches, and front office/athletic department employees in the leading sports organizations. Each organization is assigned a grade for race, another for gender, then finally an overall grade combining the two. The 2003 report covers perhaps the worst overall 2-year period of declines for women and, in some cases people of color, in the report's history, which is a reversal from 2001, when historically best hiring records were noted for race and gender. Each professional sport covered for 2003 had lower averages for gender, and only three improved for race. College sport improved overall for race and gender. Though there were significant losses for African American men playing college and professional sports, the Black Entertainment Television's CEO became the first African American majority owner of an NBA franchise. Latinos had all-time highs in baseball and soccer. There was also an all-time high of head coaches/managers of color in the three biggest professional leagues. Title IX has been the single most powerful tool to create opportunities for women in sports. (SM)