Corporate Links to Schools

Re Crenshaw High School principal Yvonne Noble’s essay, Voices, July 26: Nike is a responsible and ethical company, dedicated to sports and to kids. Here’s our side of the story:

In full accordance with school district and athletic association rules, Nike does provide free basketball apparel and footwear to the Crenshaw basketball team. It’s a donation much like computer companies make when they donate PCs to the classroom.

In 1995, Nike’s ad agency did produce the billboard in the photo accompanying this column. Our agency worked with the school and received approval. Recently, with written approval from the school, our agency paid the school a location fee of $1,000 to shoot an ad in its gymnasium, which I believe went to an educational fund. No students appear in the ad.

Contrary to this column, Nike does numerous good things in the community. Currently, we sponsor a basketball league, Joe Weakley’s Run, Shoot & Dunk League, held around Los Angeles, with many Crenshaw athletes participating. Nike and the Amateur Athletic Foundation recently conducted a program at Crenshaw High geared toward assisting adults to be better coaches and mentors.

Nike sponsors numerous community organizations and programs in the greater Los Angeles area, including the Boys & Girls Clubs and after-school programs. Yes, we can and will do even more.

Noble writes that we promised to provide her with “seconds” for her school to start a store. Here, there was a misunderstanding. This was an interesting proposal to which we were noncommittal.

Finally, she writes “at the very least, Nike could sponsor Saturday tutoring for basketball players.” In fact, Nike is a major corporate sponsor on Aug. 2-3 of “a Mid-Summer Night’s Magic Weekend,” a fund-raiser for the United Negro College Fund. The company also is providing a college prep seminar at West Los Angeles College on Sunday that is open to students and parents. Anyone interested in participating in the college prep seminar should call (213) 689-0168.

LEE WEINSTEIN

Acting U.S. PR Director, Nike

Beaverton, Ore.

I could not agree more about the pervasive influence of companies like Nike on the youth sports scene, and the obvious attitude that winning is the only thing.

The admission of Noble of her own naivete about the depth of their influence is an important first step. But I believe it is important that she, and others in her position, begin to hold their athletic departments accountable. It says much about the influence of the coaches on the male athletes when the top male players have not yet met freshman academic eligibility requirements, and the outstanding female athletes already have scholarships. Maybe we need to put more of the female coaches in charge of the total athletic program.

WARREN FERGUSON

Orange