Don Imus apparently is not much of a student when it comes to sports history. Almost 20 years ago to the day that Imus and his producer, Bernard McGuirk, referred to the Rutgers Women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos,” another high-profile gentleman found himself in hot water for remarks made on broadcast television.

On April 6, 1987, the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Al Campanis, appeared on ABC’s “Nightline” to discuss the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier. When asked whether there was “still that much prejudice in baseball today,” Campanis responded, “I don’t believe it’s prejudice. I truly believe that [blacks] may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager or perhaps a general manager.” Campanis was out of a job by April 8. And like Campanis, a few words marked the beginning of the end for Imus.

Imus now joins Campanis, football commentator Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder, Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott, golf analyst Ben Wright, MLB pitcher John Rocker, and basketball’s Tim Hardaway and Micheal Ray Richardson on the unemployment line. Some have been luckier. Sportscaster Billy Packer was largely spared the wrath of the sports industry although he spent some time apologizing for making disparaging remarks in 1996 about Allan Iverson and women’s basketball. In June 2006, the manager of the Chicago White Sox, Ozzie Guillen, was fined by MLB for calling sportswriter Jay Mariotti a “fag,” among other things. Guillen was ordered to undergo sensitivity training, and eventually apologized for using the word. Guillen is still the White Sox’ skipper.

Imus was different. He wasn’t a player in the sports industry but his talk radio show did venture into the sports arena on occasion. In the end, it was easier for the CBS and NBC/MSNBC networks to cut ties to a cash cow like Imus than defend him. But neither CBS nor MSNBC had a problem with Imus’s constant put-downs, which have been documented for decades, until he entered the sports realm by insulting the Scarlet Knights. CBS also had to contend with its partner, the National Collegiate Athletics Association, of which Rutgers is a member. The Tiffany network would eventually have had to renegotiate its multibillion dollar deal with the NCAA (the TV deal ends two years from now), and the collegiate organization might have been none too pleased with the continued presence of Imus had CBS decided to keep on.

What Imus and others failed to understand is that you can’t enter the sports arena and run your mouth without repercussions. Both college and professional sports has come to serve as the country’s moral compass when it comes to hateful and hurtful speech. Of course, it’s somewhat surprising that sports leagues should be moral guides given how many National Football League players were arrested in 2006.

But time after time, it’s been proved: when it comes to sports, you better watch your mouth. In 1983, announcer Howard Cosell called Washington Redskins wide receiver Alvin Garrett a “little monkey” during a Monday Night Football game. Cosell said he really meant nothing harmful by the remark, but soon disappeared from Monday Night Football broadcasts. Although he wasn’t fired — he quit — Cosell, who had been the key to the success of ABC’s Monday Night Football in the 1970s, his remark sparked major criticism and effectively ended his days with the Monday Night franchise.

Campanis never worked again in baseball despite the Seattle Mariners’ front office wanting to bring him in as an advisor in 1988. The Mariners decided against hiring him after the Seattle chapter of the NAACP threatened to boycott the club’s games.

Jimmy “the Greek” met his professional end at a Washington steakhouse when a TV reporter asked him why blacks seemed to be better athletes than whites. The CBS football analyst said that “[blacks were] bred to be the better athlete because, this goes all the way to the Civil War when … the slave owner would breed his big woman so that he would have a big black kid.” Snyder was dismissed from CBS’s NFL pre-game show on January 16, 1988.

Schott got into all sorts of trouble with MLB in December 1992, when in an interview with the New York Times, she not only insisted that her use of the “N-word was a joke” but also described “the rise of Adolf Hitler as being initially good for Germany.” Schott ran into more trouble in the next four years. During a May 1996 interview with ESPN, Schott again referred to Hitler and said, “everything you read, when he came in, he was good.” Shortly after the interview, the acting commissioner of MLB, Bud Selig, and his owners ordered Schott to give up day-today operation of the Cincinnati Reds to avoid a long suspension. She sold the Reds in 1998, but her legacy remains tainted by her public comments.

Ben Wright lost his golf analyst job with CBS on January 9, 1996, months after he gave an interview that included the following insights: “Let’s face facts. Lesbians in the sport hurt women’s golf. [Lesbianism] is not reticent. It’s paraded. There’s a defiance in them in the last decade. They’re going to a butch game, and that furthers the bad image of the game.” Wright initially denied he’d made the disparaging remarks, but came clean to Sports Illustrated. He has lived in sports exile ever since.

In 1999, Rocker, then a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, opened up to Sports Illustrated writer Jeff Pearlman about his experiences in New York. His candid remarks included his thoughts about Asian women, and his teammate Randall Simon, whom he described as a “fat monkey.” In 2000, Rocker was suspended by MLB, and by 2001 he was traded with his pitching in serious decline. Rocker has been trying to repair his image, but his image suffered another blow in March when he was named in an investigation of a steroid ring headed by the District Attorney’s office of Albany, N.Y.

Earlier this year, Hardaway lost his job promoting the NBA and its All-Star game after telling a radio interviewer that he hates gays. Hardaway apologized but as far as NBA commissioner David Stern is concerned, the services of the former NBA star will no longer be needed. Richardson also lost his coaching job with the Continental Basketball Association’s Albany Patroons after he allegedly told a local newspaper reporter, “I’ve got big-time lawyers. I’ve got big-time Jew lawyers,” who would handle his suspension. During a Patroons playoff game, Richardson had screamed profanities and a gay slur at hecklers. He has apologized but fears another coaching job may be hard to come by.

There is overwhelming evidence that making derogatory or insensitive remarks in the sports world can cost you a career. In sports you can play in the Super Bowl after being arrested, but you better choose your words carefully, as Imus learned. In sports, at least, there is no truth to the old adage that sticks and stones can break bones but words don’t do any harm.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com