Coleman '71 a trailblazer

Learning to read is a necessary rite of passage for children today. For many parents and teachers, coaxing children through this frustrating process is a major headache, but Leonard Coleman '71 says there was no such hassle for him.

"I learned to read because I was so interested in sports as a kid," Coleman said. "I really began reading because I wanted to read the sports page."

Years later, Coleman's childhood love for sports, particularly baseball, paid off in a way he never imagined. In 1994 he became president of Major League Baseball's National League. His appointment was the culmination of a lifelong love affair with the game that took him from high school up through Princeton and eventually to the semi-pro Metropolitan Baseball League. Growing up near New York City, it was impossible to not follow baseball.

"When I was a kid, you had the three teams in New York," Coleman said. "Baseball at that time was a religion. My mother was a Dodgers fan, my father was a Giants fan and my uncle who lived upstairs from us was a Yankees fan. We used to argue about everything ... the only thing that we could all agree on was that everyone loved Jackie [Robinson]."

Robinson was one of Coleman's boyhood heroes, and Coleman would follow him as a pioneer for minorities in sports. As a sophomore football player at Princeton, Coleman felt that because he was African American, he wasn't being given a chance to prove himself. He accused the University's football program with violating its equal opportunity policy.

He was cut from the team, but the protest attracted national attention. As a result, an investigative panel urged greater sensitivity to minority athletes. Coleman is now chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which grants scholarships for higher education to minority youths.

After receiving his undergraduate degree at Princeton and then his graduate degree at Harvard, Coleman worked in Africa for four years as a management consultant for the Episcopal Church.

"I wanted a different experience," Coleman said. "I had missed the Vietnam War — my number was high enough that I wasn't drafted. When I was finishing graduate school, I thought, 'A lot of people in my generation went into the service and in some cases gave their lives.' I decided I would commit to humanitarian service for a while."

Coleman said he really matured in Africa, learning to adapt quickly to different situations and different societies.

"If I had to look back at the years that changed my life, they were my years in Africa," he said.

After returning to the United States in 1980, Coleman took on a number of important positions, ranging from commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Energy to commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to Wall Street investment banker with Kidder, Peabody & Co.

Coleman also resumed his semi-pro career in the Metropolitan Baseball League, which former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean '57 frequently kidded him about. That didn't keep him from finishing his career in the league, which spanned nine seasons, included four league championships.

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"I was player-manager one year and my star pitcher was John Montefusco, who later became Rookie of the Year in the National League," Coleman said. "I just kept playing because I loved it."

In an interesting turn of fate, it was actually Kean's wife who got Coleman his first MLB job. She mentioned Coleman's name to a management recruiter who was looking for qualified candidates, and soon enough, Coleman was interviewed by Commissioner Fay Vincent and got a job as director of market development. Three years later, he became president of the National League.

"I was there in a period when the new ballparks were coming in, in some cases with changing ownership structures," Coleman said. "We had to work on getting public acceptance of ballparks in places like Houston and Cincinnati."

In addition to presiding over the owners, Coleman also oversaw the players and umpires and handle the press and public relations. Though he no longer works in a formal capacity for the MLB since his term ended in 1999, Coleman still loves the game.

"I've got kind of the best of both worlds," Coleman said. "I get to enjoy it, but I don't have the headaches."

Though sports are fun, Coleman also says their worthwhile.

"The lessons that you learn, the things that make you successful, for me, I gained them from sports," Coleman said. "You learn the values of teamwork, leadership and what it really takes to win or be successful."