San Jose State University football coach Fitzgerald Hill had mixed emotions earlier this fall after his peers Tyrone Willingham at the University of Notre Dame and Bobby Williams at Michigan State University became the first Division I-A black head coaches from BCS conferences to face each other. Hill, who himself is black, was sad that it had taken almost 40 years since the Civil Rights Act was passed for something seemingly so simple to have occurred.

But Hill was happy, too.

"At least the next time it happens, we can't say it's the first time," he said.

Hill, Willingham and Williams represent three-fourths of Division I-A's black coaching foursome. The other is New Mexico State University's Tony Samuel.

While those numbers are bad, others are worse. Since 1982, there have been 348 head coaching vacancies in Division I-A football. Black coaches have been selected for 18 (5 percent) of those positions, with 14 of the hires coming after 1990. Blacks have been selected for only six of the last 109 vacancies.

More bad news is the issue's staying power. Every winter when Division I-A football coaching vacancies are filled, the cold lack of diversity is front and center in the media. Invariably, the vast majority -- if not all -- of the vacancies are filled by whites.

It's not just coaching, either. Since the NCAA began tracking race demographics of athletics administrators in 1995, there has been little growth for Blacks in decision-making positions.

What little good news there may be is that the Notre Dame-Michigan State game September 21 attracted meaningful attention. During television promos for the game, it was Willingham in the highlight clips, not a star player. And Willingham's early season success for a team with a gigantic public following has brought the diversity matter more limelight than ever before. USA Today made it the cover story -- of the front section, not the sports section -- for its October 11 issue. College presidents have proclaimed the issue as a top priority for the coming months. And the Black Coaches Association (BCA) has issued a report calling for "political and financial influence."

To be sure, at no other time has the issue had such momentum. Yet, at no other time has any promise come to fruition, either.

"None of us can be oblivious to facts. They tell the truth," said BCA Executive Director Floyd Keith. "Sometimes we don't realize it -- we all like to think we're part of the solution, but none of us likes to think we're part of the problem.

"Hopefully, those who say they support change recognize they have to do more. If you stay status quo, you're part of the problem."

Advocates for change seemingly have increased in number. In a recent NCAA survey of Division I-A presidents, 78 percent said they saw the diversity issue in football as a primary concern. The NCAA Football Oversight Committee and the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee have told the Division I Board of Directors to take action. Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), said his members constantly ask what more can be done to get more minorities into the profession.

But history dictates that talking and doing are as different as a line plunge and a post route.

Good intentions not enough

No one has put more effort and research into the football diversity issue than Fitz Hill. The former assistant at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, turned head coach at San Jose State describes himself as an educator first and a black coach second. "I'm a sports sociologist who happens to be a football coach who happens to be black," Hill says. One of just three Division I-A football coaches sporting a doctorate, Hill wrote his dissertation on examining barriers to coaching opportunities for Blacks. He is passionate about his San Jose State program, and he is passionate about diversity. But he has tempered his passion with realism gained through research, which he says makes his message even more powerful.

"I am a head coach now, but my research gives me a right to make comments," he said. "I'm reporting facts from data that I've personally collected. I never point a finger; that's not my style. The point is not to make white coaches feel bad -- that's not it at all. When you make people feel bad, they cut you off."

Hill's research is extensive. Two surveys, one in 1995 and another in 2000, examined racial perceptions of employment opportunities from majority and minority perspectives. What Hill discovered was that for the most part, white respondents felt there was equal access, while Blacks disagreed. There also were contrasting perceptions when it came to advancement opportunities and job placement. For example, most black respondents said black coaches are hired not for their strategic understanding of the game, but for recruiting and monitoring black athletes. Not surprisingly, a majority of white respondents disagreed with that notion.

Hill says the contrasting perceptions lead to "rational discrimination," which starts as an impression and turns into a mindset. He said stereotypes sabotage even the best of intentions when it comes to hiring a diverse coaching staff. Recruiting experiences are a good example, Hill said. White football coaches who have recruited black partial qualifiers or nonqualifers might begin believing Blacks can play football but not coach it.

"In the back of your mind, you bring that with you all the way to when you get ready to hire a person," Hill said. "Then you look at a black candidate and you wonder if he's smart enough to be a coordinator and call plays, or play a leadership role. Is this person going to dress well enough, be eloquent enough with alumni?

"You say you're trying to find the best person for the job, but when you do that you don't have a qualified African-American picture that comes to mind."

Hill has seen the fallout first-hand. He has been on recruiting trips with white assistant coaches where the recruit assumes the white coach is the head coach and Hill is the recruiting coordinator.

"They don't mean it as discriminatory," he said, "but subconsciously it never registers to them that I'm the head football coach because I'm 'a black coach coming there to get the recruits.' That's the mindset. The fact is, since there are so few of us, there's probably never been a black head football coach from Division I come to that school."

Misperceptions and biases

What feeds the misperception is that the percentage of black assistant coaches actually has risen from 18 to 22 percent since 1995. Thus, when white respondents to Hill's survey say they believe there is equal opportunity, they see evidence to back it up.

"They do believe it because they see an influx of black assistant coaches coming into the pipeline," Hill said. "It used to be that only one Black was hired per staff and now it's often two or more. So if you're among those schools or you're out on the road recruiting and you keep running into black recruiters, then you might be inclined to think the problem has subsided.

"But the major problem still rests in the contrast of perspectives when it comes to equal opportunity. You have white coaches who think everything's going to be OK, and then you have black coaches who look at the facts and wonder how anyone could think everything is OK. That's the problem."

Part of the disconnect is because of the jobs black coaches actually hold. According to the USA Today story, there are just 12 black Division I-A offensive or defensive coordinators, positions from which head coaches often are selected. In Hill's survey, black coaches feel they have been relegated largely into skill-position coaching, which limits their chance for career advancement.

Comments from Hill's survey point that out. "Administrators hire white coaches because the vast majority of (administrators) are white," said one survey respondent. "In turn, white coaches hire primarily white staffs because they want to work with people they are familiar with. The black coach is then hired to fill a quota, recruit the black athletes and become their mentor."

Another said, "There seems to be a mentality that two black coaches is enough. There's also the perception among the white assistants that we have it made because of our color. What they don't realize is that we are competing for just those two spots out of the nine assistant coaching positions."

Still another noted, "I am perceived as the resident 'expert' on all minority affairs. Black players come to me with social, personal and academic problems. This does not set well with others on the staff."

Hill said white coaches do not perceive that those biases exist, and that it often is difficult for white coaches to understand the general discontent of black coaches regarding barriers to career advancement. Further, many white coaches are tired of hearing black coaches complain about the lack of opportunity.

"But I don't think a person could say based on past hiring numbers that there doesn't need to be some sort of process in place to guarantee equal opportunity," Hill said. "At some point, we're going to have to look at Title VII (federal law) to correct the situation if institutions don't correct it themselves. You just can't continue to say, especially when you're receiving federal dollars, that you're hiring the best person when the pool is not open to everyone."

Prepare for opportunities

Because the issue has history, it also has a laundry list of suggested solutions, but so far, none has produced change. "There's no simple solution," Teaff said. "If there was, it would have been solved."

The NCAA, the AFCA and other organizations have tried professional development programs to open the pipeline, but have enjoyed little success. The BCA tried a letter-writing campaign last year to provide candidates for Division I-A openings, all of which were filled by whites (even Notre Dame hired a white coach before Willingham took over the position, and he did not increase the overall numbers because he already had been at Stanford). NCAA committees have considered legislating incentives for schools to appoint more black graduate assistants, but that track is littered with legal ramifications. Minority groups have pressured college presidents, but numbers still lag.

Success may be the best tonic. Most admit that Willingham winning a national championship at Notre Dame wouldn't hurt. Minorities faced a biased landscape in basketball, too, until black coaches began winning. "A lot of things changed after Texas Western," the BCA's Keith said, referring to coach Don Haskins' team that beat the University of Kentucky in the 1966 national championship game.

But Hill said it's wrong to put the fate of one group's advancement on a handful of shoulders. He said it emphasizes that black coaches tend to be evaluated collectively, whereas white coaches are evaluated individually. "That's the problem we're dealing with," he said. "Success for black coaches shouldn't be judged on Tyrone's success or my success; it should be merit-based individually. However, the hiring process is very subjective."

Teaff said an organization cannot do much to break the subjectivity. "Our association has little effect on institutions hiring head coaches," he said. "We have for some time now provided for athletics directors who call a list of top candidates, and minority coaches are included in that, but in the end, it's an institutional decision.

"The best thing we can do is to encourage minorities to join the ranks and prepare themselves for opportunities. I guarantee you that Tyrone Willingham was not hired because he is a minority, and I guarantee you that Tyrone Willingham wouldn't want to be hired just because he is a minority. He has prepared himself to assume the opportunity. It's a delicate balance between those opportunities being created and individuals being prepared when the opportunity comes along."

Teaff also noted that people often forget the sheer magnitude of the candidate pool when it comes to vacancies. The AFCA has 10,000 members essentially fighting for jobs at 115 Division I-A schools. That leads to a lot of disappointment, both from whites and minorities, when it comes to picking the select head-coaching field.

"In our profession," he said, "most individuals -- minority or non-minority -- come in with a dream to go to the top. Not everybody will get that chance. The whole concept is finding ways to increase the percentage of opportunities for minority coaches. They ought to have bigger bite of the pie. But that doesn't mean that they have any more desire to coach than the non-minority coaches who come in with the same goals and dreams.

"It comes down to preparation and created opportunities. The good thing is that we have a lot of people who are concerned and who are working, and I think eventually we're going to get there. But it's probably kind of painful now, probably for everybody, to tell you the truth."

For black coaches in particular, the truth is what hurts the most.

Hardwoods showing more headway

College basketball, the sport that most closely mirrors college football's participation rate for black student-athletes, doesn't mirror football's lack of diversity in the head coaching ranks. The latest NCAA research shows that almost 28 percent of Division I head men's basketball coaches are Black and that almost 36 percent of assistants -- the reservoir from which head coaches are selected -- are Black.

Some say that, for whatever reason, basketball is perceived to be more of a minority-dominated sport than football, which has led to the acceptance of blacks in coaching. Others point to the success of trailblazers such as Georgetown University's John Thompson and Nolan Richardson of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, as the reason for basketball's diversification.

But another common theory is that basketball, the driving force behind the NCAA's budget, doesn't touch football's financial hold on individual campuses.

"The big money still is in football, and a lot of people are not willing to give that kind of power to a minority," said Ramapo College Athletics Director Eugene Marshall, who chairs the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee.

San Jose State University head football coach Fitz Hill agreed, saying that football revenue has deep financial roots that have been cultivated by whites.

"Usually the athletics director was the head football coach. It wasn't until 10 to 15 years ago that presidents started hiring ADs who were managers rather than head football coaches," he said. "Basketball is a sport that's really just come on to produce great revenue over the past 30 years, unlike football, which always has been the primary revenue producer and has more tradition in that regard."

"If you follow the money you'll usually find the answers to things," said Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association. "People who are successful sometimes become oblivious to color. Last time I looked, money was green."

University of Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway, who chairs the Division I Board of Directors, hopes there's no credence to the notion that football powers shy away from giving Blacks the financial reins.

"I think it's a false issue to suggest that money is a commodity that's tied to race," he said. "It's wrong for people doing the hiring to think that a black coach would not have the same view of revenue and its importance to football."

Hemenway, fresh from a head football coaching search at Kansas that produced a minority finalist but a white hire, said he's not sure why football seems to lag compared to other parts of the university when it comes to diversity, but he is certain that remedies are available.

"We have tried and true techniques for developing people so that they can be competitive in those searches," he said. "In my experience, minority candidates do not have any trouble competing if they know they're entering into a level playing field. We need to make sure it's a level playing field."

Other theories as to basketball's quicker diversification include a smaller coaching pool (staffs of four or five per team rather than nine or 10) and the impact of the NBA. But college basketball has had more minority-coached teams break through to championships, too, and more change agents -- both white and Black -- who have broken the color barrier.

"C.M. Newton was a change agent, along with John Thompson, John Chaney, Clint Bryant and all the way back to Fred Snowden at Arizona State," Marshall said. "Those guys worked hard to make change happen."

Marshall noted that some of "those guys" also were influential in a 1994 dispute over a proposed increase in basketball scholarships, an act many black coaches felt was discriminatory. A boycott was proposed, but subsequently averted. "I think 1994 was a big turning point," Marshall said. "Maybe that has to take place again in 2002."

-- Gary T. Brown

BCA aligns for action

When game plans were being pitted on the field during the August 23 Black Coaches Association Classic between the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and Texas Christian University, a different game plan was being formulated to diversify Division I-A football coaching.

BCA Executive Director Floyd Keith used his group's grid classic to convene a summit among representatives from the NCAA, NFL and AFCA to talk about increasing opportunities for black coaches. Discussions among conference commissioners, athletics directors, influential black leaders and professional league representatives culminated in a comprehensive report that maps out a three-year strategy for what Keith calls "measurable improvement."

The report, released October 22, calls for short-term and long-term goals in four areas: knowledge (awareness), accountability, political influence and financial influence. One of the goals is to achieve a 20 percent success rate in hiring black football coaches for Division I vacancies (excluding openings at historically black colleges and universities) that open after the end of this season. The BCA wants that to be accomplished by August 2005.

The report also calls for a "hiring report card" for NCAA schools and advocates that the hiring process be included in Division I certification and Divisions II and III self-studies. The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee already has supported the latter.

Additionally, the report calls for a "market brand" on a line of apparel that brings the minority hiring issue to the general public. The slogan "Don't play where you can't coach" would appear on apparel promoting significant sports figures or players who have broken barriers.

Changing the landscape

What they're saying about improving diversity in football coaching:

"We may have legal issues to deal with. You couldn't get away with (the lack of diversity) in corporate America. You couldn't get away with it in college presidential hires or deans. But it hasn't improved with college football. This is a frontier that no one can say doesn't need to be adjusted. Some kind of hiring structure needs to be put in place because there are too many subjective evaluations about who should get a job and who should not."

Fitzgerald Hill,
head football coach,
San Jose State University

"There are many problems that confront the pool of minority candidates, ranging from a lack of interest from minorities coming in, to the huge amount of 'cherry picking' the NFL does from the collegiate coaching ranks, to the need for better education and preparation. All of us are going to have to do a better job encouraging young minorities to come into the profession and preparing themselves to work themselves into a position for opportunities."

Grant Teaff,
executive director, American Football Coaches Association

"The whole issue is this: Does the individual making the choice have the courage to make a decision -- sometimes not the easiest decision to make -- when all things are equal? You have a capable minority candidate at the same level or slightly above a majority candidate, and you say what's the easiest choice for me? It takes courage to decide something that's not in the mainstream."

Floyd Keith,
executive director, Black Coaches Association

"What you need are good administrators who understand the need for diversity. If the athletics director and the president and the board make an institutional decision to hire a person of color in a key position, then they can defend it because they're all on the same page. No doubt it takes guts, but it's easier for it to be an institutional decision than it is for it to be an athletics director's position or an athletics department's position."

Eugene Marshall,
athletics director, Ramapo College

"Every president has an obligation to make sure there are people of color in the pool for any coach they hire. It's not just a matter of how it looks. It's a matter of what you want your institution substantively to be. You do it because it's right for your university and your athletics program."

Robert Hemenway,
chancellor, University of Kansas

Groups seek Division I action on diversity

Two NCAA groups are appealing to the Division I Board of Directors for action regarding the lack of diversity in football coaching. The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC) is asking that the Board support an allocation of $1 million to provide development and exposure opportunities for a wider group of coaches.

Some of those initiatives might include developing a coaches academy, or series of comprehensive workshops and seminars, to build candidates' interview preparation, networking and media training. The academy would be conducted in conjunction with other organizations, such as the American Football Coaches Association and the Black Coaches Association.

Also, the MOIC is advocating increased media exposure for historically black colleges and universities through partnerships with Division I-A conferences and the NCAA branding, broadcasting and promotions group.

The MOIC also is reviewing ways to improve diversity at the graduate assistant position in football, including the concept of a matching grant that would provide schools with an incentive for hiring ethnic minorities in those positions.

The NCAA Football Study Oversight Committee, a group the Board appointed two years ago to conduct a comprehensive review of issues in the sport, including diversity, endorsed the MOIC recommendations and asked the Board to take action to remedy what the group calls "an unacceptable problem."