The Numbers Are Dwindling

If the Black Coaches Assn. is playing a numbers game, it’s losing.

In 1998, there were eight African American head football coaches at the 117 Division I-A schools. Today, there are two -- and Karl Dorrell, who has been UCLA’s coach for 23 games, has the longest tenure.

The firing of Tyrone Willingham on Tuesday by Notre Dame after three seasons, coupled with the firing of Tony Samuel at New Mexico State and Fitz Hill’s resignation at San Jose State last week, means that three prominent African American head coaches have lost their jobs in eight days.

Willingham’s firing sends a clear message, said Floyd Keith, executive director of the BCA:

“It tells you something is really wrong. And it should tell all of America something is really wrong.

“What’s magnified this thing is, there’s simply not enough African American coaches out there. People know it’s wrong. You have to know it’s wrong. You’ve got such a disparity.”

Keith’s group funded a study of the hiring of NCAA Division I-A and I-AA football coaches and reported that since 1996, only two African Americans who had not been head coaches got head coaching jobs -- Hill, who resigned Nov. 22 at San Jose State, and Dorrell at UCLA. Before moving to Notre Dame, Willingham was head coach at Stanford, where he was hired in 1995.

The only other African American head coach in Division I-A is Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State, who was hired after the study was conducted. Croom is in his first season. Hill said Willingham’s firing, as well as his own departure and that of Samuel, indicate a disturbing trend.

“You don’t have to have a PhD in statistics to realize those numbers aren’t very good,” he said. “It is a step backward.”

“We all want Karl Dorrell to succeed because it raises the profile of African American coaches and gives us all hope.”

Dorrell, in his second season, has UCLA at 6-4 after finishing 6-7 last season.

Contemplating his new standing as the longest-tenured black coach in college football caused Dorrell pause.

“I’ve never really thought of it that way,” he said. “I know that at some point in time it might be my turn. You can’t take anything for granted.

“I’m just going to work hard and coach the best that I can and be a big influence on this program. That is what drives me, and that’s what motivates me every day.”

Although he doesn’t know Willingham well, Dorrell said he was “disappointed” by Notre Dame’s action.

“Sometimes in this profession you lose sight of the big picture,” he said. “This profession is not the most fair profession to be in, and we understand that.”

C. Keith Harrison, who wrote the report for the BCA, is director of the Paul Robeson Research Center for Leadership, Academic and Athletic Prowess. Harrison is a researcher and teacher at Arizona State in the college of education, division of educational leadership and policy studies.

He is working on an updated hiring report and said he was glad it was not ready for publication.

“The overall analysis would not be good, since we’re down to two African American coaches in a total of 117 Division I-A schools,” Harrison said. “But life is not fair, and as long as we can recycle some of these coaches -- get them other head-coaching jobs -- I could feel a lot better.

“South Carolina hires [Steve] Spurrier, you hear about Urban Meyer being mentioned at Notre Dame, it’s pretty powerful just to hear the hearsay. My question is, how are they going to follow the process if these names are already out there?

“You hope three or four African American coaches will be hired. You hope Norm Chow, who is a coach of color, gets hired. He’s got a great, great mind for football. But for African Americans, it looks bleak.”

Keith said the numbers were no better in Division I-AA. Excluding the head coaches at the historically black colleges and universities, there are no African American coaches at that level.

“We’re going to make everybody accountable,” Keith said. “I expect to see some African Americans get jobs, I do, or I wouldn’t be sitting in this chair.”

According to Richard Lapchick, a sports sociologist and director of the University of Central Florida Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, the firing of Willingham involved factors other than race.

“[Notre Dame Athletic Director] Kevin White had the courage to hire him and open himself up to criticism on a racial level, so the firing is something beyond race,” Lapchick said. “We’ll see what kind of heat [White] takes.”

Lapchick said if there were criticism of White, he doubted it would smake athletic directors less likely to hire African Americans as head coaches.

“How much less likely can there be, since there’ve been 21 in the history of the sport?”

Harry Edwards, a sports sociologist and advisor to the San Francisco 49ers, said Willingham lost his job because that’s what happens to coaches.

“I don’t think firing any coach sends a bad message to anyone,” Edwards said. “If you’re a coach, you’re going to get fired.”

Edwards added, however, that there were not enough African American head coaches in college and that chances for change may not be improving.

“You’ve got white chancellors, white athletic directors, white school personnel, white booster groups and white sponsors -- it’s an all-white set-up, for all practical purposes,” he said. “When it gets down to hiring, what contact network do these people reach into? I’m not saying a black deserves the job more because of his color, but there has to be some equity in this regard.”

Hill is joining Lapchick at the University of Central Florida as a visiting scholar and researcher. He acknowledged that his 14-33 record at San Jose State wasn’t good enough, but insisted that race remained an issue in the hiring -- and firing -- of African American coaches.

“What was Bob Davie’s record his first three years at Notre Dame?” Hill asked. “He was 21-16. And he lasted five years. Tyrone was 21-15. So what are we saying? Are we talking apples to apples? If we’re not talking apples to apples, what are we talking about? This isn’t the ‘60s anymore. We should not be having this discussion in 2004. Until there is an objective criteria in place for hiring, the numbers will not increase. In fact, we have seen the numbers decrease, simply because of the subjective nature of hiring. We want an equal playing field. We don’t have one.”

Times staff writer Lonnie White contributed to this report.