Black Coaches Still Waiting for the Call

Floyd Keith was waiting by the telephone Friday in Kingston, R.I., to hear from a recruit. He wasn’t expecting an athletic director to call.

Some have, but none lately.

Actually, few black coaches are getting calls from athletic directors these days.

Twenty-one of the 111 Division I-A football coaches are out of work, three by choice, the rest because they have been fired.

Sixteen replacements have been announced, and only one, Tony Samuel, appointed Thursday at New Mexico State, is black.

A 17th, Glen Mason, was reportedly to be announced as Minnesota’s coach today, creating yet another opening, at Kansas. Odds are, it will be filled by a white man.

“I’ve seen my name mentioned many times before,” said Keith, who is black and the coach at Division I-AA Rhode Island, which was 4-6 this season. “Gosh, I’ve been interviewed about a dozen times [for I-A head coaching jobs], as early as 1981.”

He got none of them, even though his resume includes four seasons as an assistant at what’s called the cradle of coaches, Miami of Ohio, plus five seasons at Colorado, one at Arizona and nine at Indiana, and four seasons as the head coach at Howard and four more at Rhode Island.

That makes him qualified for a Division I-A head coaching job, according to a list of 16 people, gleaned from interviews with other head coaches and sent by the Black Coaches Assn., along with resumes, to schools looking to fill head positions.

“That was just 16 people that we identified as being people we know are qualified,” said Rudy Washington, executive director of the BCA and athletic director of Compton College. “They have the experience and leadership qualities, and it doesn’t mean that there aren’t more.”

Not only are African Americans not getting jobs, they aren’t getting chances to get the jobs, according to Washington.

“These people we have recommended aren’t even getting interviews,” Washington said. “If they were, it would be hard to turn them down, and I think athletic directors and search committees know that.”

It’s frustrating to the coaches.

“We used to get a token interview,” said Charlie Coe, who is on the BCA list. He was assistant head coach at Pittsburgh until two weeks ago, when he was swept out with his boss, Johnny Majors.

“They used to talk to at least one of us, to say that they have considered a minority. We’re not even getting that anymore.”

Some of the black coaches, perhaps unwilling to disturb a system that might get them a head coaching job in the future, are quiet.

Alex Wood, the head coach at I-AA James Madison, which was 7-4, is also on the Black Coaches Assn. list, but he doesn’t want to get drawn into what is increasingly a controversy, as job openings mount and white replacements are hired.

“I just hire my assistant coaches here,” he said.

But Wood has been bitter, being quoted in USA Today as saying, “Obviously, we’re just not good enough.”

Coe isn’t worried about being drawn into any dispute. He is bitter, particularly when he sees recent trends in hiring.

“I have 24 years as an assistant,” he said, reeling off jobs at Iowa, Cincinnati, Ball State, Louisville, Miami, Kansas State and Tennessee, besides Pittsburgh.

“Matt Cavanaugh [quarterback coach with the San Francisco 49ers] has four years, and he turned down Pitt. Bobby Stoops [defensive coordinator at Florida] has had eight years and he turned down a $450,000 job at Minnesota.

“I know Bobby Stoops. I worked with him, and he is a good coach. But eight years? And I have 24 and don’t even get to turn down a job?”

Cavanaugh and Stoops are white.

“You just don’t know,” Coe said. “Tony Samuel got the job at New Mexico State, and I’m happy for him, proud for him. But Tony comes off the staff at Nebraska, and they always win. He’s never had to take a program and build it from the ground up. I know about doing that.”

Samuel’s being the only black hired among the 16 replacement coaches so far is about par. Only 6% of the 111 head coaches in Division I-A this season are black.

Besides Samuel, the African-American head coaches are Tyrone Willingham at Stanford, Ron Dickerson at Temple, John Blake at Oklahoma, Bob Simmons at Oklahoma State, Jim Caldwell at Wake Forest, Matt Simon at North Texas and Ron Cooper at Louisville.

Blake was the only black among the nine coaches hired last season.

Working against black coaches are several factors:

--A system that has hired black assistants on what seems a quota basis, most schools having two on a staff of eight full-time assistants, some only one, even though 52.6% of all Division I-A players this season are black.

--A primarily white network of head coaches. When athletic directors call coaches for recommendations, the calls are usually taken by whites, allowing the network to perpetuate itself.

--Few black athletic directors among schools with Division I-A programs. Mike Garrett at USC, Gene Smith at Iowa State and Merritt Norvell at Michigan State are the only black athletic directors of universities with Division I-A football.

--Few black university presidents, who usually make the final decision on hiring a coach.

“It’s definitely a concern,” Smith said. “You obviously want to provide an opportunity. We have not been effective, in my view, in providing that opportunity.

“But it has to come down to the institution, and a lot of it is circumstance, where you are in your program.”

Whatever they think of the system, most coaches know where they stand. There are qualified coaches of all races.

“No. 1, I can’t say I didn’t get a job because I was a minority,” said Keith, who is a member of the American Football Coaches Assn.’s minority issues committee. “There were others as qualified as me.

“But, that said, I think I’m qualified. My track record is good. I’ve been around football since 1970. . . . You never know how somebody gets a job.”

For all of that, he doesn’t brood.

“You can’t be sitting around every day, wondering and worrying about why opportunities aren’t coming your way,” he said.

But the Black Coaches Assn. says it won’t sit much longer.

“All we’re looking for is to get our feet in the door,” Washington said. “Just an interview, and a chance for a coach to sell himself. We’re just raising the question, not threatening anybody.

“Any dramatic gesture, if we have to make one, will come at a later date, after the hiring process is complete and we see how it goes.”

The BCA has talked with Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition of Fairness in Athletics, which has talked of informing potential recruits at schools that are hiring new coaches of what it perceives as an unfair situation. The coalition has also talked of a protest at the Jan. 2 Sugar Bowl, which could crown a national champion.

“We haven’t gone that far,” Washington said. “We want to deal with it in a civil way, without making things get ugly.”

And while this goes on, Keith and Wood recruit, and Coe waits by the phone, taking heart Friday when he heard that Rod Dowhower was out at Vanderbilt.

The Commodores’ defensive coordinator is Woody Widenhofer, for whom Coe coached at Missouri. Defense wasn’t Vandy’s problem.

A job?

“Woody knows what I can do,” Coe said.

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College Football’s Firing Line

TEAMS WITHOUT COACHES (5)

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Team (Record) Outgoing Coach Minnesota (4-7) Jim Wacker Pittsburgh (4-7) Johnny Majors Southern Methodist (5-6) Tom Rossley Vanderbilt (2-9) Rod Dowhower Western Michigan (2-9) Al Molde

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TEAMS WITH REPLACEMENTS HIRED (16)

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Team (Record) Outgoing Coach Coach Hired Arkansas State (4-7) John Bobo Joe Hollis Alabama (9-3) Gene Stallings Mike Dubose Baylor (4-7) Chuck Reedy Dave Roberts Boston College (5-7) Dan Henning Tom O’Brien Fresno State (4-7) Jim Sweeney Pat Hill Illinois (2-9) Lou Tepper Ron Turner Indiana (3-8) Bill Mallory Cam Cameron Kentucky (4-7) Bill Curry Hal Mumme Maryland (5-6) Mark Duffner Ron Vanderlinden New Mexico State (1-10) Jim Hess Tony Samuel Notre Dame (8-3) Lou Holtz Bob Davie Oregon State (2-9) Jerry Pettibone Mike Riley Purdue (3-8) Jim Colletto Joe Tiller Tulane (2-8) Buddy Teevens Tommy Bowden San Jose State (3-9) John Ralston Dave Baldwin Wyoming (10-2) Joe Tiller Dana Dimel

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