National Collegiate Athletic Association |
CommentNovember 24, 1997
Guest editorial -- Promotion on merit an illusion for Blacks
BY FITZGERALD HILL Nearly a year ago, Mike Dubose was named the 22nd head football coach at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. At the press conference to announce his hiring, coach Dubose said, "My standing here today is proof that dreams do come true. It sends a message to not be afraid to dream, because if you work hard and be patient, dreams do come true."
Findings from my recent study of the hiring patterns and job-related experiences of black football coaches employed at Division I-A institutions indicate that very few black football coaches believe that they will be promoted within their athletics department on the basis of merit. Although the number of black assistants has increased, current hiring patterns reflect the fact that staff leadership and head coaching positions are routinely reserved for white coaches only. Unfortunately, race continues to have a dramatic influence on career opportunities for black collegiate football coaches. However, many athletics administrators contend that the current hiring patterns and job assignments for coaches within their football programs operate indiscriminately of race, especially for those individuals who are qualified. Past employment patterns suggest that athletics administrators may not be comfortable hiring black coaches to lead their institutions' football programs. This fact is evident when considering that in the history of Division I-A football, black coaches have been given a total of 16 opportunities to lead major-college programs. Since 1982, there have been 263 head coaching vacancies, but black coaches have been selected for a mere 14 (less than one percent) of those positions. At the conclusion of the 1996 football season, only one black coach was deemed qualified for one of the 24 Division I-A head coaching vacancies. During the 1970s and 1980s, black collegiate football coaches were frequently perceived as lacking the necessary skills to serve in leadership roles in predominantly white colleges and universities. However, due to the need to recruit and communicate effectively with black student-athletes, usually one black assistant coach was hired by the institution to monitor and supervise the growing number of black athletes on scholarship. In January 1989, while attending my first American Football Coaches Association national convention in Nashville, I gained a unique insight into the hiring practices of NCAA Division I-A football programs. At the time, I was in my first year of working as a graduate assistant and waiting for an opportunity to break into the coaching profession. As I stood in the hotel lobby among a group of black football coaches conversing about job opportunities, one coach remarked about possible job openings at a university in the Southwest. The institution had recently named its new head football coach. But before that coach finished his statement, another coach said, "You can forget trying to get hired there; they have already hired a black coach." To my surprise, five years later, I was the only Black on the coaching staff at the University of Arkansas. My study revealed that many black coaches perceive that this hiring pattern still occurs today. Nearly 70 percent of the black coaches surveyed agree, at least to some extent, that their job security and career opportunities often are not related to their ability to coach on the football field but are primarily associated with their ability to recruit, counsel and retain black student-athletes who currently make up the majority of Division I-A student-athletes participating in the sport of football. As recently as the 1995 football season, Blacks were employed in only 219 of the 1,080 (20 percent) possible head and assistant coaching positions at the Division I-A level. Six (5.5 percent) Blacks were employed as head coaches (currently there are eight). Sixty-four of the 108 (59 percent) Division I-A college and university football staffs employed two Blacks, and 24 (13.1 percent) institutions hired only one black coach. Today, current employment patterns subtly stratify black football coaches into coaching assignments where there is little chance for professional advancement. Past hiring practices in the college coaching profession suggest that serving as a coordinator is often a prerequisite to becoming a head coach. During the 1995 football season, 12 of 213 (5.6 percent) black assistants were assigned coordinator responsibilities; nearly 80 percent of the black assistants were hired to coach receivers, running backs or defensive line. By being stacked in those coaching positions, Blacks are frequently restricted from being sought for head coaching jobs. Terry Don Phillips, a licensed attorney and director of athletics at Oklahoma State University, wrote in a recent article in The NCAA News that "minority representation for coaches should approximate the percentage of minorities in the relevant applicant pool." Furthermore, Dr. Phillips noted that qualified coaches should come primarily from those who actually participated in athletics. If this is true, a disparity exists between the number of Blacks in the coaching profession and the number of individuals available in the pool from which black coaches can be selected. Many black football coaches frequently refuse to speak up about their employment experiences regarding racial issues out of fear of provoking reprisals from the white colleagues whose support and assistance are essential to securing employment and critical to future advancement. On the other hand, white administrators and coaches tend not to express their true feelings on the subject of race for fear of possible negative consequences. As a result, sensitive race-related issues are often swept under the rug, if not ignored. The intent of my study was to provide the information necessary to begin an open and honest examination of employment opportunities and a comprehensive identification of barriers facing black collegiate football coaches. Fitzgerald Hill is an assistant football coach at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He recently earned a doctorate in higher education from Arkansas. His dissertation was entitled "Examining the Barriers Restricting Employment Opportunities Relative to the Perceptions of African American Football Coaches at NCAA Division I-A Colleges and Universities." Black head football coaches at Division I-A institutions Name -- Employing institution -- Years of employment -- W-L-T Willie Jefferies -- Wichita State -- 1979-83 -- 21-32-0 Dennis Green -- Northwestern -- 1981-85 -- 10-45-0 Cleve Bryant -- Ohio -- 1985-89 -- 9-44-2 Wayne Nunnley -- Nevada-Las Vegas -- 1986-89 -- 19-25-0 Francis Peay -- Northwestern -- 1986-91 -- 13-51-1 Dennis Green -- Stanford -- 1989-91 -- 16-18-0 Willie Brown -- Long Beach State -- 1989-91 -- 2-8-2 James Caldwell* -- Wake Forest -- 1992-97 -- 14-41-0 Ron Cooper -- Eastern Michigan -- 1993-94 -- 9-13-0 Ron Dickerson -- Temple -- 1993-97 -- 8-47-0 Matt Simon* -- North Texas -- 1995-97 -- 17-26-1 -- Ron Cooper* -- Louisville -- 1995-97 -- 13-20-0 -- Bob Simmons* -- Oklahoma State -- 1995-97 -- 16-17-1 Tyrone Willingham* -- Stanford -- 1995-97 -- 18-15-1 John Blake* -- Oklahoma -- 1996-97 -- 6-16-0 Tony Samuel* -- New Mexico State -- 1997 -- 2-9-0 * Currently employed at this institution. In his research, Fitzgerald Hill noted that most of the institutions that have hired black football coaches have not been traditional powers, which probably has affected won-lost records.
Division I-A black coaches by position assignment Position -- Total No. -- Coaches participating in Study -- % of coaches responding Quarterbacks -- 7 -- 5 -- 71.4 Offensive line -- 4 -- 4 -- 100.0 Receivers -- 51 -- 40 -- 78.4 Running backs -- 49 -- 39 -- 79.5 Tight ends -- 7 -- 6 -- 85.7 Defensive line -- 41 -- 30 -- 73.1 Linebackers -- 21 -- 17 -- 80.9 Secondary -- 31 -- 29 -- 93.5 Special teams -- 2 -- 2 -- 100.0 Total -- 213 -- 175 -- 82.1 The average annual salary reported for African-American football coaches in the study was between $50,000 and $59,000. Nearly five percent of the coaches did not report their yearly earnings. Letters to the Editor -- At-large selections serve to assure qualityThe Division III Championships Committee and Management Council continue to move to implement a quota system for access to the Division III basketball tournament. The concept that every conference exists or that it is formed with the proper number of teams, regardless of proven level of play, and that a certain quota of independents, regardless of proven level of play, have some divine right to a coveted spot in the field is flawed. This distortion of the principle of equal access is unfair to conferences that play at the most competitive level. In the quest for inclusion, the result is exclusion of truly outstanding teams with a legitimate chance to win the national tournament. Is it equal access to win a conference so weak that the champion would be in last place in one of the powerful conferences and qualify while clearly proven superior teams finishing second or third in the more powerful conferences are denied? I certainly did not think that autonomy for Division III brought with it an interpretation of principles that promote mediocrity. In the NCAA Division III Manual, Bylaw 31.3.4.1-(e) states that "Competition in the applicable sport must be of sufficient quality to warrant automatic qualification." Why would we abandon a bylaw that stresses quality? In real terms, enhancement means for basketball a reduction from 64 to 48 teams. A return to 64 teams for basketball would at least give us a chance for "inclusion" and slots for at-large, deserving, quality teams.
Dennie Bridges
Magazine neededIf Time Inc. does not maintain its new magazine, Sports Illustrated Women/Sport, it will perpetuate the myth that women's sports are not as legitimate as men's, despite the fact that the magazine's premiere was yet another important first for female athletes. Women/Sport debuted in this silver anniversary year of Title IX, the equity law that prohibited discrimination based on gender. The legislation allowed women to participate actively in federally funded school athletics programs. Now there could not be a better time to launch a magazine such as this one since women's history is experiencing a "Golden Age" in the development of its sports. Women's fastpitch softball debuted in the 1996 Olympic Games and the United States team brought home the gold. U.S. women's basketball and soccer followed suit. In 1997 alone, three professional women's sports leagues began their rookie seasons: Women's Professional Fastpitch, the Women's National Basketball Association and the American Basketball League. Women's athletics programs have flourished as well in high schools and colleges across the country. But in the 25 years of women's competition, this is the first and only magazine dedicated to hard-core female athletics that is on the newsstands under a well-known publisher, Time Inc., and a major brand name, Sports Illustrated. It is a huge endorsement that says to the public, "Women's sports are legitimate. Look, read and see what women can do." To take Women/Sport off the newsstands after only two test issues would do a great disservice to female athletes and only reinforce the notion that the sports world is a man's world. Until the first issue of Women/Sport appeared in April, Sports Illustrated itself had been part of this very media problem. With weekly editions that showcase an average of 127 pages of athletes, about five pages are given to women (only 2.5 percent) while the rest focuses on men. Yet women constitute more than five million of SI's 24 million readers, more than one-fifth of its readership pool. But women are not given that same percentage within the written pages of the magazine. Instead, women are the sport, as the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition implies. How else do women in skimpy bikinis remotely connect to sports? Arguably the best sports magazine in the country, SI does not do justice to female athletes and therefore, women need this new publication. Women's sports needs Sports Illustrated Women/Sport to report on the fast-paced developments of the female athlete and to celebrate her game and her achievements. And it needs the Sports Illustrated name, that standard of excellence in sports journalism, to back it and let the public know that women's sports are important.
Lisa Naas Editor's note: A recent article in the Chicago Tribune said that the magazine's fate "is now up to a jury of its target audience." Direct-mail questionnaires were sent to potential subscribers in late October, and the feedback likely will determine if or when the magazine is published. If the magazine is published, the article suggested the possibility of quarterly rather than monthly frequency. Opinions -- NBA should bear more responsibility for development
John Feinstein, author "Players shouldn't be forced to go to college, and they shouldn't be force-fed to the NBA, either. The compromise is a developmental league funded by the NBA. If Commissioner David Stern can pour millions into a league for women, he should be able to come up with some money to protect the game's future. The league should consist of eight to 10 teams with 10 players each. Pay everyone between $75,000 and $100,000 a year and make them put $20,000 of that into a trust fund. The schedule should include no more than 40 games -- so players aren't going from 25 games in a season to 100 in the pros -- and as little travel as possible. "Players can play up to four years. If, after four years, they aren't good enough for the NBA, they can decide what to do next with their lives: keep playing in other minor leagues or overseas, or take the $80,000 (plus interest) now in their trust fund and go to college -- not to play ball but to go to class. By then, college may not seem like such a bad idea. "Similar concepts are available to students who choose not to go to college -- or can't qualify. In 1994, President Clinton's school-to-work proposal became law, which encouraged schools to create more courses to ease students' transition into the workplace. On January 1, the president's Hope Scholarships plan goes into effect providing tax credits to cover tuition for the first two years of college, as well as for trade schools. Programs such as these are making other options available to noncollege-bound students so that they get the skills that will make them contributing members of society. The same should go for athletes. "Would such a league mean that a number of great players will never play college basketball? Yes. But nowadays many great players are only hanging around for a year or two anyway. This way, those who choose college will do so because they want to and are likely to stay four years and perhaps even graduate. The college game will still be competitive and exciting, perhaps just a little less spectacular. But it will also be something it isn't right now: real. Right now, many of the best college teams aren't represented by college students. It's well past time to change that."
Discontinuing football
Editorial Discussing the discontinuation of the football program at Boston University: "Women athletes at B.U. will benefit handily from the demise of football, and that's a good thing, considering the short shrift given to women's sports versus men's athletics on college campuses. There will be 23 more scholarships for women by 1998-1999. And eight sports overall will be helped, including men's and women's soccer, men's and women's crew, and women's basketball. "B.U. is not deserting high-profile sports by dumping football. The big spectator sport there is ice hockey. B.U. is a perennial national champion or contender, and plays first-rank opponents. "College and football go together on many a campus. But at B.U., a city school if no longer a subway school, that's a stretch. The parents and working students who are paying for an expensive education at B.U. should be delighted that it was logic and not nostalgia that carried the day when the future of football on Commonwealth Avenue was decided."
Tom Masella, football coach "Division I-AA scholarship football is in trouble nationally."
David White, senior associate athletics director "I think (I-AA) is a very healthy level to be. If you're (playing) at this level, it has a bigger contribution than just the draw at the gate. It gives you a well-rounded program and a (high-profile) fall sport. "We brought a lot of excitement back to the campus. Alumni are coming back in the fall with something to look forward to."
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Does coach Dubose's statement apply equally to Blacks who desire to be head football coaches at predominantly white colleges and universities?