NCAA Panel Tackles Low Numbers of Black Division I Coaches

By Tamika L. Jefferson
Black College Wire

Not counting historically black colleges and universities, NCAA Division I schools responding to a survey (PDF) reported that of 839 coaching positions in men's basketball, 17 percent were filled by people of color. For women's basketball, the figure was 13 percent of 869 positions, and for football, 8.7 percent of 541 positions.

packers.com Sylvester Croom has become the first African American head football coach in the 71-year history of the Southeastern Conference.

Contrast that with this figure: 47 percent of its 2,249 athletes are minority students, according to Carlyle Carter, commissioner of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

To close the gaps, suggested solutions range from longer hiring periods to contacting coaches at historically black colleges and universities for potential candidates.

Denise Dehass, assistant director of research in the NCAA, presented the racial data on the coaching staffs during the 2004 National Collegiate Athletic Association Conference, held in January at the Nashville Gaylord Opryland Hotel. She cited 2001-02 NCAA data, the latest available.

�You cannot argue with the facts,� said Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association, during a session titled "Minority coaches: What can be done to increase the number of minority coaches in intercollegiate athletics?"

�There needs to be 24/7, 365 [days of] effort to be focused on this issue. The myth is that giving minorities high-profile head coaching positions puts the university in jeopardy of [losing] financial giving by corporations. The real stance, winning or losing, is what affects the monetary rewards.�

Carter, along with Dehass, Keith and Ron Stratten, vice president of the NCAA, comprised the panel.

The data also showed that a modest increases in the number of coaches of color in Division I sports could be offset by decreases in minority coaches in Divisions II or III. The data confirmed that the percentage of minority assistant coaches in Division I schools is higher than for head coaches and has consistently been increasing since the NCAA began collecting the data in 1995.

�In every walk of life, is a challenge to get minorities equal opportunities,� Teresa Philips, second-year athletic director at Tennessee State University, said. �I don�t think it immediately needs to be equal, because a lot of minorities might not want to be in those high positions; they may want to do other things in athletics. . . . It�s not going to change dramatically until the individuals who are in charge change their mindsets.�

In December, Mississippi State University hired Green Bay Packers assistant coach Sylvester Croom, making him the first African American head football coach in the 71-year history of the Southeastern Conference. The move also came 40 years after the Mississippi State basketball team played in the NCAA tournament, defying state law and a court order that prohibited whites from competing against blacks.

�The guys I work with at TSU can work at any level, even professionally,� said Rod Reed, Tennessee State�s defensive coordinator, who held the same position at a predominately white school, East Texas Baptist College in his hometown of Marshall, Texas. �In this business, it�s not how much you know, it�s who you know. Most Division I coaches are white, so they hire who they are comfortable with. I would do the same if the opportunity presents itself to me. Is it fair? Who�s to say?�

The panelists agreed that majority universities need to use a reliable candidate list. Black coaches from HBCUs have done much more with fewer resources than are available at even a portion of some of the predominantly white schools� athletics programs, Keith said.

Tennessee State�s former head football coach John A. Merritt, who coached former Dallas Cowboy great Ed �Too Tall� Jones, and former basketball coach Ed Martin, who won 500 games in 17 seasons and coached former Washington Bullet Leonard �Truck� Robinson, could have received more notoriety and money at bigger-revenue schools.

�You get more out of having black coaches,� said Otis Lewis, a TSU alumnus who played offensive tackle under Merritt. �Along with being an athlete, you are still a person. . . . (T)hey know how to deal with not only the players but the player�s families and they can relate to the player�s moods.�

Tamika L. Jefferson, a student at Tennessee State University, is sports editor of The Meter.

Posted March 4, 2004