Data was collected by a research team at the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. After acquiring media guides for the individual teams in each of the three leagues, a preliminary report was composed that listed the name, job title, and race of every employee identified in the team media guides.

In addition to the individual team data that was collected, the commissioner's office in the NBA and NFL provided data on league personnel. This data included information on referees and officials.

The basis for most of the college data was a 1995-96 NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interest Committee survey which had not been reviewed by the Committee and had not been publicly released at the time of the publication of The 1997 Racial Report Card.

A final draft report was then sent to each league office, the players associations and the NCAA headquarters for feedback, verification, discrepancies and comments. All three leagues and the NCAA responded with edits and those changes were incorporated into the text.

In addition, data was gathered from USA Today's Baseball Weekly, USA Today, New York Times, Boston Globe, Hispanics in the Major Leagues, Hispanic Sports Business as well as from various reporters from around the country.