The Myth of the Black Coach

With the recent firing of Karl Durell, the number of Black Coaches at the Division I or Bowl Champion Division just dropped from 6 out of 119 positions to 5 out of 119 positions. Whether Durell’s firing was fair is inconsequential because a University has the right to hire and fire a coach as they see fit. Durell, in fact did have a respectable record at UCLA, 35 win and 27 losses in 5 seasons with 5 consecutive Bowl appearances counting this season. Durell also, appeared to operate a fairly clean ship with no major infractions or incidents against his program. But the firing or hiring of an individual coach wont impact the numbers of minority coaches at the Division I level.
The pattern of hiring African American Head Coaches has more to do with Social Stratification than finding “qualified candidates. Though when College Administrators are asked about the dearth of African-American Coaches at their schools, you hear a lot of excuses; i.e. reasons for this lack of hiring :(1) they have to go through the proper chain of jobs, head coach at smaller schools, assistant coach, defensive or offensive coordinator at a larger school., (2) this process takes a long time, once a generation of coaches become qualified assistants then, the pool of qualified candidates will grow. On the surface these reasons sound reasonable but there are flaws in this logic. If these reasons are legitimate why do some white coaches come directly from Division 1AA or ((Bowl Subdivision Schools), straight into head coaching jobs in Division I football. Examples are Jim Tressell, Youngstown St. to Ohio St. or Brain Kelly, Division II Grand Valley St. to Central Michigan Jerry Faust from High School to Notre Dame... None of these coaches had to serve as a Defensive or Offensive Coordinator at a big school or in the NFL before landing a Division Head Coaching job. Could you imagine a successful head coach from a school like Grambling, Hampton or Delaware St., being hired as the head coach at LSU, Virginia or Virginia Tech or Maryland after being successful at their schools? No, but that’s because there is a caste system in Division I College Football, just like in other areas of our society. Black Coaches, especially the ones from Historically, Black Colleges lie at the bottom end of this caste system. Experience is not really the issue. Black coaches have plenty of experience, from grade school to high school through the College Level. This experience is gained primarily at predominately African American Institutions where these coaches they have been the primary teachers for many of these top level athletes that are now being coached by white head coaches at Division I schools. So whether they can coach is not really the issue. I believe that the underlying reason lies with the stratification of roles and status in our society, which assigns more value to things that are from the dominant culture. The position of head football coach is aligned directly to that of an institutional and community leader. Millions of dollars are funneled through these programs and most College Presidents and Trustee Boards at these Major Universities are not willing to turn over the reigns of their programs to African American Coaches. It comes down to the racial caste system that still is prevalent in our society. The African American Professional and their institutions are still viewed as inferior, and the head football coach is just the visible tip of the iceberg. If we go further to the root of the problem we see that these same institutions have less than 3% of their School Presidents who are African American and African American Professors only account for about 4% of the faculty at predominantly white institutions. So what it really comes down to is whether African American Coaches and their skills, knowledge and experience are valued by these majority white institutions. At this moment the answer is a resounding no. We have a long way to go before we can alleviate the caste system that prevents the hiring of capable African American Coaches.

Finally, Hens will meet Hornets

Finally, Hens will meet Hornets

By Michael Robinson

GOD, Destiny, Fate, or whatever you believe in, has intervened to insure the University of Delaware, (UD) will finally play Delaware State University (DSU) in football. The Blue Hens vs. The Hornets, Newark vs. Dover, Rich vs. Poor the haves vs. the have not's. You may ask what’s the big deal? Why all the excitement? (See Jeff Perlman’s; article (September 24th the Insider page of ESPN.Com). Perlman, a University of Delaware Graduate and Sports Writer believes race and class are the main reason behind the continual refusal of UD to play DSU in football. As Perlman states, “This is a natural rivalry, two schools are separated by only 50 miles”, but it might as well be 500.
Even the cites are different, Newark, UD’s location is home to the Dupont’s, and the business hub of the state while Dover, DSU’S home is located in the rural working class area of Delaware. UD is about 6% African American while DSU is overwhelmingly African –American. In fact DSU’s existence is predominately a by-product of racism, the School, founded in 1891, as a “ Separate but Equal” facility, when the state’s leaders decided that they did not want blacks attending their precious University. But as we know separate does not constitute equal. DSU has always had less resources, lower pay for their teachers and inferior facilities, both academic and athletic than their distant cousin, UD.
Despite these inequities, DSU has survived for 106 years, and has served as an opportunity for young African- American in the region to attend an institution of Higher Education. As for the football game, race may not be the only reason the two schools have not played each other for decades, but obviously in our society race is always an issue. Otherwise how can you explain the difficulty in scheduling the game? But now fate has stepped in and as both teams have made the (Bowl Subdivision), formerly IAA playoffs, they are destined to meet for the first time on Friday November 23rd. There is most likely elation and vindication in Dover and nervous apprehension in Newark.
I hope that no matter the outcome of the score, there will be two victories for each team; Hope and Fairness, and also two losers; Fear and Ignorance.
Also, thank the football gods for getting it right, when the Athletic Department of UD could not. To paraphrase what Humphrey Bogart told Claude Rains in the movie Casablanca. This could be the beginning of a beautiful rivalry.

finally

Bonds soon to join Hall of Shame
By Michael Robinson

“Say it ain’t so Barry says it ain’t so!”. I don’t know if there will be a little kid standing at the steps of the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco uttering those words to Barry Bonds, when Bonds has his day in court. But the heartbreak and confusion of young Bond’s fans may be just as great as that young White Sox fan some 88 years ago. I know it’s just an indictment and Bonds has not been convicted of the charges he faces of lying under oath, about his knowledge of using performance enhancing drugs. But we all knew something was amiss when a player hits almost thirty more home runs (73) in a single season then he ever had, as Bonds did in 2002.
But if a kid doesn’t say it I will, “Say it ain't so Barry say it ain’t so; or maybe that was the problem, maybe he should have said so and come clean, taken his fine and suspension. Then come back to baseball free of any suspicion and rumors. I guess there in lies the problem, when you start with a little lie it grows into a bigger lie and then you can’t control it, or as my mother use to say “there is no such thing as a little lie”. I have nothing against Barry Bonds, from the day he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates I have followed his career with amazement. Even this indictment doesn’t diminish what I think of him as a player, I still believe him to be one of the top ten players of all time and certainly the greatest of the past 20 years . Alas, though we know deep down inside that Bonds and many others have lied in recent years about their use of performance enhancing drugs. But I am not here to talk about the others because frankly, I didn’t marvel at their play as I did with Bonds his unbelievable batters eye, his quick hands, and early in his career his great defense and speed on the bases. I don’t even believe steroids or any other performance enhancers made him a better player (if that were true everybody would just juice and be great), but the deception and half truths have made him a pariah, such as Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson before him, so instead of being the first ballot unanimous choice, Hall of Famer he should be, he may unfortunately join these former greats in baseball’s Hall of Shame.