By the early 1970s, football had overtaken baseball as the country’s favorite spectator sport. Television contracts, sold-out stadiums, merchandising and sponsorship deals ensured an abundant, steady flow of cash.

In the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, the growth of the NFL Players Association — first formed in 1956 with Cleveland players as a nucleus — gave players more say in how their profession developed and contributed to a big boost in salaries. So, too, did the ever-rising profitability and popularity of the game. (https://operations.nfl.com/the-players/evolution-of-the-nfl-player/ )

 In 1967, a league popped up that would rival the NBA for attention and, more importantly, players, the American Basketball Association (ABA). Eleven franchises - in New York, Pittsburgh, Indiana, Minnesota, Oakland, Virginia, Anaheim, Dallas, New Orleans, Houston and Denver - formed to join the ABA, with the goal of luring away NBA stars and rookies out of college. The NBA, as a response, expanded, adding five more teams over three years and then three more teams in just the 70-71 season alone. 

With the challenge of the ABA to NBA supremacy, perhaps the biggest change was in salaries. The late 1960s saw an explosion in player contracts, with some top rookies now getting deals in the range of $250 to $300 thousand dollars (in today's money, around $1.5 to $1.7 million, getting far closer to modern standards of rookie contracts). The NBA, desperate to keep the players in their league and away from the ABA, felt they had no choice but to pay increasingly high salaries.  (http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/basketballhistory.html )

The Birth of Free Agency in 1976

It came about because of a landmark 1975 ruling by the late Peter Seitz, an independent arbitrator who – as part of a three-person board with one representative from the owners and one from the players – determined that veteran pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally should become free agents after playing a full season without signed contracts. When Seitz ruled in favor of the two pitchers, the MLB owners panicked. They worried that most players would become free agents on an annual basis, creating chaos. Not wanting that to happen, the owners negotiated a compromise system that allowed players to become free under two conditions: a) their contracts had expired and b) they had accumulated at least six years of major league service time.

It was an adept piece of negotiation by Marvin Miller, the head of the Players’ Association. He felt that all-out free agency might be bad for the players; if all players became free agents every year, then they would create an over-saturation of the market and actually compress salaries for all but the superstar players. By introducing a system of six-year free agency, Miller ensured that only a few players would become free each winter. Miller figured that demand would increase for those players, thereby pushing their salaries higher and higher. Miller figured right. (https://baseballhall.org/discover/short-stops/free-agency-still-fuels-baseball )

Several NFL teams stood out for their racist beliefs, including the Washington Redskins, the last professional football team to integrate, signing Bobby Mitchell in 1962. By the 1970s Blacks were among the NFL's top stars. In the late 1980s, Black players made gains in positions from which they had been discouraged, particularly as quarterbacks.

Among Blacks to play quarterback in the NFL were Willie Thrower, the first Black quarterback in the league (1953), James Harris, Marlin Brisco, and Doug Williams, the only Black quarterback to lead his team to a Super Bowl win. Although Blacks have excelled on the football field they have not been welcomed in management positions. While 67 percent of all players in the NFL are Black, there are no Black owners and there was one general manager.  Ozzie Newsome became the first Black General Manager of an NFL team in 2002. He runs the front office for the Baltimore Ravens. Floyd Reese is currently in the same position with the New Your Giants who won the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2011 and Houston's Rick Smith is the third.  (https://aaregistry.org/story/black-contributions-to-american-professional-football-are-many/ )

The most dramatic effect of integration on the game was an increase in the number of players from urban environments. These men played what some call street basketball. The influence of this style was most obvious during the 1970s with a number of players from urban backgrounds. Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, Julius "Dr. J." Erving, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar pushed the game into a faster pace, and higher scoring.

Monroe, a classy dribbler and great passer, was named rookie of the year after his first season with the Baltimore Bullets. Julius Erving led the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association (ABA) to consecutive titles in 1974 and 1975 before joining the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA. Dr. J, as Erving was known, was one of the most creative players in the league. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a conscientious and innovative athlete easily dunked the ball over his opponents and developed a new and virtually unstoppable move known as the Sky-Hook. He helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA titles during his 25-year career and set the standard for contemporary centers to this day. Other standouts of this era included Willis Reed, who played with a broken leg during the seventh game of the 1970 NBA finals, his teammate Walt Frazier, and Elvin Hayes of the Washington Bullets, each of whom were also products of street basketball. (https://aaregistry.org/story/the-nba-african-americans-love-this-game/ )

While the American League still didn't feature as many black stars during the 1960s, Armour's research found that the percentage of non-white players in the Junior Circuit did rise significantly during the decade, and there were some firsts along the way.

Most notably, Elston Howard of the New York Yankees became the first black player to win the American League MVP in 1963. A couple years later, Frank Robinson became the first (and still only) player to win an MVP in both leagues when he won the AL MVP in 1966.

It was in the 1970s that the two leagues finally featured about the same amount of non-white star power. Armour found that the percentage of non-white stars in the American League trended toward 50 percent during the decade, while the percentage of non-white stars in the National League trended down toward 50 percent.

The National League had Joe Morgan, Ferguson Jenkins and a getting-better-with-age Willie Stargell. The American League had Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson and Jim Rice. Combined, the two leagues produced quite a few black MVPS during the '70s. (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1604333-tracing-black-players-mlb-impact-from-jackie-robinson-to-todays-game )