He Won’t Knock This Opportunity

The delightful news conference/revival meeting at UCLA Thursday reminded me of my favorite story about opportunity.

It was 1978. Clifford Alexander, the Secretary of the Army, had just been handed a proposed list of candidates for promotion to general.

He scanned the list and noticed that, even though the Army was filled with soldiers of many races, all the general candidates were white.

He handed the list back to his subordinates and asked them to double-check the files to make sure they weren’t overlooking others of equal achievement whose careers may have suffered from old prejudices or stereotypes.

He asked them to look not only in the usual places, but in those odd corners where talent might be blocked or hidden. He asked them to look at these candidates not with preference, but with fairness.

When they came back with a new list, it contained the name of Colin Powell.

Something similar happened at UCLA this week, and our entire sports community is better because of it.

Karl Dorrell wasn’t hired as the new Bruin football coach because he was black. He was hired because, after initially embracing the safe, white choice of Mike Riley, UCLA officials weren’t afraid to keep looking.

Dorrell wasn’t hired to make a statement about the mission of diversity. He was hired to make a statement about the pursuit of excellence.

Dorrell wasn’t the first candidate, or most traditional candidate, or even the most popular candidate. But he was the best candidate, so UCLA found him, even if it meant looking in an unusual spot, at an unusual background, for a guy with an ethnicity shared by only three other coaches among the 117 Division I-A football teams.

Isn’t this how true equal opportunity works? Hire the right person no matter what their race or religion, even if it means breaking down doors and rolling the dice?

Dorrell, the Denver Bronco receiver coach, just turned 39. He has no head coaching experience at any level. When he played, he was a receiver, a guy who lines up yards from any other teammates and usually doesn’t make a good coach.

But he has studied under such notable coaches as Mike Shanahan, Rick Neuheisel, Bill McCartney, Bruce Snyder and Terry Donahue.

He has helped teams to three Rose Bowls, two Fiesta Bowls and two Cotton Bowls.

And, of course, he is a former Bruin who never let anyone forget it. So he deserved at least an interview.

And when UCLA finally gave him that interview, even though it was nearly a week after Riley’s interview and seemed meaningless, he dazzled them.

“The way I am, if somebody opens the door, I’m going after it,” Dorrell said.

The same interview was offered to Mike Price, then of Washington State. But he pulled his name out of consideration because he thought the Bruins had already decided on Riley and were making a token gesture.

Dorrell didn’t care.

“The way I look at it, if it’s a token interview, I’m going to make a second interview,” he said.

And so he did, barging his way into the office of Chancellor Albert Carnesale, impressing him the way Athletic Director Dan Guerrero impressed him last spring.

“It had nothing to do with race,” Carnesale said. “He impressed me with his quiet maturity, poise, leadership. He showed a passion that was not about jumping up and down and waving his arms. He was a guy with the right perspective.”

So was Carnesale, who has made two major athletic hirings, and both have been minorities, and both seem like good fits.

“I look at it like, I have hired a dean of athletics, and a dean of football,” he said. “I have hired teachers.”

The lessons offered by Dorrell will be many, and varied, things that others could not have taught.

“We live in a global community where we should celebrate diversity,” Guerrero said. “The fact that we see things through different filters should be celebrated.

“That Karl is African American will enrich our entire community. He’ll be a role model.”

College football, that most racially prejudiced of sporting endeavors, could use one.

Four black coaches among 117 teams? Even in a world of elitist NFL owners and redneck baseball bosses, that’s pathetic.

“It’s an issue, I know it is, that’s part of our society,” Dorrell said. “Not every place is on equal ground.”

But while toiling as an assistant coach for 15 years, from Orlando to Flagstaff, with only one other head coaching interview on his resume, Dorrell never said a word.

“In my opinion, you just have to work,” he said. “Sometimes you have to work harder or longer, but you just keep working.”

He shrugged. “Life is not fair, I know that.”

But sometimes, life works. Sometimes, America’s great melting pot opens and something wonderful slips out.

Sometimes, in the course of 24 hours, a man can go from a freezing field in Denver to the warmth of a loud ovation among old friends.

I’ve never before heard so many fans cheer at a news conference.

I’ve never before seen such smiles.

“We all thought Mike Riley was the guy, we thought the new athletic director would make the safe choice,” former Bruin Ken Norton Jr. said. “We’re thrilled that he kept looking, and made the right choice.”

Whether Dorrell will be a good head coach is unknown.

But he has already said that, unlike Steve Lavin, he will not be afraid to hire veteran assistants with head coaching experience.

He also has said that he’ll be wary of players trying to take advantage of his youth.

“They can buddy up to me all they want,” he said. “But they better bust their butt.”

Beyond that, not much can be predicted about this new Bruin coach in this new Bruin world. The only thing certain is, a man who deserved a chance has been given one. For now, that’s victory enough.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Dorrell at a Glance

A summary of Karl Dorrell, the new UCLA football coach:

* He is in his third season coaching the Denver Broncos’ wide receivers.

* Before stint with Broncos, Dorrell coached 12 years on the collegiate level, including seven seasons as an offensive coordinator.

* Came to the Broncos from the University of Washington, where he spent the 1999 season as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.

* Offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Colorado from 1995-98, after a previous stint as wide receivers coach from 1992-93.

* Dorrell began coaching in 1988 as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, UCLA. His other coaching stops include Central Florida (1989; receivers), Northern Arizona (1990-91; offensive coordinator/receivers) and Arizona State (1994; wide receivers).

* He played wide receiver at UCLA from 1982-86 and had 108 receptions for 1,517 yards. His receptions now are tied for ninth most in school history and his receiving yards rank 12th. He also played on teams that won three Rose Bowls and the 1986 Freedom Bowl.

* A native of Alameda, Calif., Dorrell, 39, is a graduate of San Diego’s Helix High. He and his wife, Kim, have two children, Chandler, 7, and Lauren, 4.