Braddock, J. H., Royster, D. A., Winfield, L. F., & Hawkins, R. (1991). Bouncing Back: Sports And Academic Resilience Among African-American Males. Education and Urban Society, 24(1), 113-131.

Data for 1,140 African-American male students from 802 public schools from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 indicate that sports participation is positively associated with aspirations of African-American male eighth graders to complete high school and enter college. Other positive effects of athletic participation are found for this sample. (SLD)

Full article can be found here:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013124591024001009