Silver anniversary of a major mistake: Al Campanis on Nightline

April 3, 2012

Can it really be 25 years ago since Al Campanis appeared on what might just be the most (in)famous episode of Nightline (when it was a real news program)? Campanis, then the general manager of the LA Dodgers, was on to discuss the lefacy of Jackie Robinson and ended up losing his job for his comment that African-Americans didn’t have the “necessities” to serve as Major League managers and executives.

It seems like ancient history, but Nightline producer Rick “No Relation” Kaplan says it almost feels like yesterday. Later in the clip, Kaplan says the if there was one thing that came out of the fiasco, it was the open discussions that followed. Several of the gentlemen interviewed for this piece admit that progress was made on the back of those unfortunate remarks.

I miss Ted Koppel. To this day, he expresses his empathy for Campanis (as do Campanis’ son and grandson).

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Tagged as: Al Campanis, Jackie Robinson, Nightline, Ted Koppel

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