[2] His earliest memory as a five-year-old was seeing an image of his father swinging from a tree across the street from his house where people were picketing against the inclusion of a black athlete in a "white" team.
In the 1970s, Lapchick started fighting apartheid and led the boycott of South African participation in international sports events, the Davis Cup in particular.
Lapchick claims his New York City apartment was ransacked in 1981 while he was leading a protest of a South African rugby team scheduled to play in the United States.
For 32 years, the NCAS has been "creating a better society by focusing on educational attainment and using the power and appeal of sport to positively affect social change.
"[1] Lapchick helped create the National Student-Athlete Day in 1988 which to date has recognized more than 2.6 million high school students for being citizen-scholar-student-athletes.
Lapchick was an associate professor of political science at Virginia Wesleyan College from 1970 to 1978 and a senior liaison officer at the United Nations between 1978 and 1984.
[7] In December 2006, Lapchick, his wife Anne, daughter Emily, and a group of DeVos students formed the Hope for Stanley Foundation (HFS), which has worked to help rebuild New Orleans.