Diversity effort advances with two Division I football hires

 The Division I football coaching ranks became a little more diversified with the recent hirings of Ron Prince and Norries Wilson as the head coaches at Kansas State University and Columbia University, respectively.

Kansas State's Prince is now one of four African-American head coaches in Division I-A, while Wilson joins Indiana State University's Lou West as the second ethnic minority head coach in Division I-AA (excluding historically black colleges and universities). Wilson also is the Ivy Group's first minority head football coach.

The hirings of Prince and Wilson also mark another milestone -- those two are the first participants of the NCAA Men's Coaches Academy to attain head coaching positions. Launched in January 2003 to help increase the number of ethnic minority head football coaches in Division I, the academy helps ethnic minority coaches with career advancement through skill enhancement, networking op-portunities and exposure.

"The academy was created to feature and support highly qualified and experienced coordinators and assistant coaches who are ready and willing to become successful head football coaches in Division I-A," said Charlotte Westerhaus, NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion. "During the span of one prolific week, two recent graduates of the academy have been selected as head football coaches in Division I. That not only reflects well on the stellar quality of the academy, but most importantly, it speaks directly to the outstanding caliber of recent participants."

At Kansas State, Prince succeeds long-time head coach Bill Snyder after a five-year run at the University of Virginia, where he has spent the past three seasons as offensive coordinator. In addition to serving as offensive line coach for three seasons at Cornell University, he also coached at James Madison University from 1995 to 1997, and he was offensive line coach for one season at South Carolina State University. Prince began his full-time coaching career as offensive line coach, tight ends coach, and strength and conditioning coach at Alabama A&M University. He played collegiately at Dodge City (Kansas) Community College and Appalachian State University.

Robert C. Vowels, chair of the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, said he believes the Coaches Academy will continue to identify qualified coaches like Prince and Wilson.

"This is a great week for college football," he said. "If this process keeps going, we'll see more minority candidates receive similar opportunities."

Wilson comes to Columbia after seven years as an assistant coach at the University of Connecticut, the last four as offensive coordinator. Wilson also spent four seasons at Bucknell University as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. He also was the defensive coordinator at Livingstone College and the offensive line and tight ends coach at North Carolina Central University. Wilson was a three-year letter-winner, two-year starter and captain at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where he also was a two-time letter-winner in wrestling.

Basketball tournament raises cancer awareness

When Melissa O'Neil accepted a coaching post at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2003, she brought much more than her on-court expertise. O'Neil also brought an idea for an eight-team women's basketball tournament that ultimately netted $7,600 for the Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer.

Indiana (Pennsylvania) hosted the inaugural Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Classic November 25-27. The tournament featured some of the top teams in Division II's East region, including 2004 national champion California University of Pennsylvania and 2005 Elite Eight participant Charleston University (West Virginia).

In addition, fans had a chance to bid on items such as an autographed photo of Pat Summitt as part of a silent auction. The Komen Foundation also staged educational forums on breast cancer awareness.

O'Neil linked the event to the Komen Foundation after receiving a mailing from the organization. "My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor and I have a cousin who found lumps at the age of 21. When I heard from the Komen Foundation, I definitely wanted to donate money, but I wanted to do something more."

O'Neil plans to make the tournament an annual event. "The people in this community were treated to some great basketball," she said. "And our university community donated a good chunk of money to the Foundation. All in all, it was a successful weekend."

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

30 years ago

Here's what was making NCAA news in December 1975:

• The NCAA and ABC Sports agree on a two-year contract extension for football valued at $18 million per year. Of that amount, $500,000 is for the Divisions II and III championship games. In addition, two regular-season games in each of those divisions will be televised.

• Ohio State University running back Archie Griffin, the first two-time winner of the Heisman Trophy, is among student-athletes named as the Today's Top V. The others are John Sciarra, quarterback at the University of California, Los Angeles; Marvin Cobb, a baseball and football student-athlete at the University of Southern California; Bruce Hamming, a basketball student-athlete at Augustana College (Illinois); and Ohio State diver Patrick Moore.

• Attendance for the 1975 football season soars to a record 31.7 million. The top five teams in per-game attendance are Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Tennessee.

• The National Collegiate Football Championship Feasibility Committee submits plans to the NCAA Council for four-team and two-team playoff options that would be played after the final postseason bowl game. The plan would not affect the administration of any bowl. Committee Chair Ernest C. Casale says, "I think the fans want, and deserve, a National Football Championship, and it would be an excellent source of revenue for college football."