Alleged SEC Racist hiring practices

[arnie]

Interesting that DBR would link to an article blasting the SEC for racist hiring/firing practices. I am not aware of any African American head coaches ever at Duke. Certainly Duke has not hired an African American head coach in a high profile sport.

Does anyone know if we have hired a minority in any NCAA sports? And if not, what possible explanation other than the obvious??

[burnspbesq]

Interesting that DBR would link to an article blasting the SEC for racist hiring/firing practices. I am not aware of any African American head coaches ever at Duke. Certainly Duke has not hired an African American head coach in a high profile sport.

Does anyone know if we have hired a minority in any NCAA sports? And if not, what possible explanation other than the obvious??

Good heavens. What sort of lunacy is this?

(1) The sport in which there is seemingly the largest pool of qualified African-American head coaches is men's basketball. That job hasn't opened in 27 years, and isn't likely to open soon.

(2) There are arguably only three African-American head coaches in women's basketball with the quality experience to be capable of taking over a high-profile and demanding position such as Duke's. One resigned from her last position under a cloud of suspicion; if she did what she is alleged to have done, that behavior disqualifies her. The other two leveraged the mere availability of the Duke position into significant contract extensions and/or salary increases, and showed no interest in the Duke position as a result. Duke has, in reality, been part of the solution in women's basketball, as two African-American former Duke assistants have gained high-profile head coaching positions.

(3) African-Americans with head coaching experience in football at the BCS-conference level can do a lot better than Duke, as can the small number of African-American co-ordinators who are arguably ready to take the next step.

(4) The pool of African-Americans qualified to coach non-revenue sports at the level at which Duke competes is infinitesimally small. I challenge you to name one African-American who would be qualified to take over, say, the Duke field hockey program is Coach Bozman were to be kidnapped by aliens tomorrow.

It's called an imbalance of supply and demand. It will take at least a generation to change. Racism has not a thing to do with it, and your suggestion to the contrary is scurrilous and indefensible. Get a clue, willya?

[wilson]

While I think Gary Parrish raises an important point, I think his logic is a bit facile. Kentucky's expectations are somewhat outsized, as we all know. Whereas Tubby got a raw deal, I don't think it's because he is black. It was more because he has been solid, but not spectacular in recent years. More importantly, he has missed out on lots of high-profile recruits. As for Stan Heath, I think past performance cast a shadow on his tenure as well. Arkansas fans doubtless remember the glory days of Nolan Richardson (who, lest we forget, is black), and figure they can recapture them (not entirely dissimilar to many NC State fans' outlook). I don't know the situation at Ole Miss, but I do know they have been entirely irrelevant on the basketball court for pretty much my whole life (the Ole Miss basketball moment I think we all remember most vividly is Bryce Drew's shot to lead Valparaiso to victory over the Rebels in the '98 tournament).

Certainly, there is racism in the south. But I think it's too easy, and somewhat dangerous, to paint the "Southeastern Conference" with the brush of traditional "southern" bigotry. Above all else, SEC schools like to win, and win big. I think the firings reflect that more than prejudice. Presumably, Georgia is right in the center of that supposed "racism belt," but I am a lifelong Atlantan, and I spend lots of time amid UGA fans. Let me tell you: Dennis Felton is going nowhere anytime soon, unless he gets cherrypicked by a higher-profile program. He has been steadily rebuilding the program ever since he arrived, and his performance has won him lots of allies among Dawgs fans. I'm smart enough to know that there are plenty of SEC fans who don't like this or that coach because of the color of his skin (just as there are in every other conference...are you telling me that every Clemson fan just loves Oliver Purnell?). But to level the charge that these coaching changes are due to prevalent, institutionalized racism seems to me like mere sensationalism, not to mention a relatively easy way to meet a deadline.

[crote]

The Parrish article linked on the front page relied on some pretty dubious reasoning. The University of Arkansas, which has had an African American head basketball coach for the last quarter of a century, has all of a sudden revealed itself to be a prejudicial institution with the hiring of John Pelphrey? Really?

[Duvall]

(3) African-Americans with head coaching experience in football at the BCS-conference level can do a lot better than Duke, as can the small number of African-American co-ordinators who are arguably ready to take the next step.

It is difficult to reconcile that with the paltry number of African-American head coaches at the Bowl Subdivision level. Has Duke ever interviewed an African-American candidate for one of its too-frequent coaching searches?

[MrBisonDevil]

Interesting coaching pyramids:

~50% of the Division IA football scholarship athletes are African-American
~25% of the assistant coaches in Division I football are African-American
~3% of all Division IA football programs have an African-American head coach

~50% of the Division IA football scholarship athletes are White
~75% of the assistant coaches in Division I football are White
~97% of all Division IA football programs have a White head coach

Who hires coaches? College presidents & athletic directors
~95% of Division I schools have White presidents
~89% of Division I athletic directors are White

To become a qualified candidate, I think you need to have a real opportunity. Many African-American coaches are placated into positions that provide no real opportunity to move up. “Real Opportunities” is where racism takes its invisible hold. Can we say “Good Ol’ Boy Network?” Honestly, this is a reality in almost every sector in the US. We don’t like it, but it’s immutable (often unseen… but still immutable). It is what it is, folks.

That’s all I have to say…

[freedevil]

I agree wholeheartedly with Wilson, but wish to stress one thing: the SEC, if anything, is addicted to winning. The firing of a white football coach (Shula) at Alabama, after showing a promising ability to coach, is just one example.

[wilson]

I agree wholeheartedly with Wilson, but wish to stress one thing: the SEC, if anything, is addicted to winning. The firing of a white football coach (Shula) at Alabama, after showing a promising ability to coach, is just one example.

You're exactly right, but that's part of my point: The issue here is unrealistic expectations and misaligned priorities, not institutionalized racism.

[arnie]

Am I to believe that no minority football coach would take our job and only 3 minority women's basketball coaches are capable of leading our program??

Wow! Call it what you like, but no one seems to know (or wants to comment on) my original question. Have we ever hired a minority head coach for any our NCAA teams? Additionally, have we ever interviewed a minority for a head coaching positioin. I don't know the answer to these questions.

[dcarp23]

While I'll be the first to admit that there a) are racists in the South and b) is a disproportionate amount of black coaches in sports, as a Southerner I get tired of people still painting this region of the country with such a bigoted brush. Racism, whether it be overt or subconscious, is just as prevalent in other regions of the country. The South is just an easy target for writers like Gary Parrish who want to show how enlightened they are.

If the number of black coaches in a conference is the be all/end all for determining how progressive a certain region of the country is, let's look at some numbers:

African-American head basketball coaches in the

ACC: Al Skinner (not a southern school), Leonard Hamilton, Oliver Purnell, Dave Leitao, Sidney Lowe, Paul Hewitt, Frank Haith

SEC: Dennis Felton (until recently, Tubby Smith--who wasn't fired, and Stan Heath)

Big 10: Tubby Smith (until recently, Tommy Amaker)

Big East: John Thompson, Norm Roberts, and South Florida (a southern school) just hired Stan Heath

Pac 10: Ernie Kent, Lorenzo Romar, Trent Johnson

Big 12: Mike Anderson, Jeff Capel

So while there is a problem with too few black head coaches, the problem is a tad more pervasive than southerners being bigoted rednecks. Perhaps Mr. Parrish will be more willing to tackle a more complex problem in the future by using methods other than applying stereotypes that are coming on fifty years in age.

[MarineTwinsDad]

Admittedly, I'm not all that familiar with what is called "racism," as much of my life has been spent in Micronesia and Papua New Guinea. However, I understand that the reason given for having some many athletes of color on sports teams is because they are simply better at the games (more athletic) than "white" players. This is accepted without question. No one ever suggests that race has anything to do with a team putting such a large percentage of a minority race out on a basketball floor.

However, when the discussion switches to coaching, the emphasis changes. If "whites" are represented at a level essentially equal to their population percentage, this is deemed to be "racist" because of the large number of minority athletes. This seems to be somewhat illogical. Is it possible that "white" people may be better at coaching, while African Americans better at playing sports? If it is indeed permissible to have the majority of slots on a team taken by African Americans because they are the best players, why would it be called "racist" to have the majority of coaches from the "white" race? Is there something I'm not getting here?

[wilson]

Is there something I'm not getting here?

Great post. To answer your question, the only thing you're not getting is that sound logic such as yours is impermissible when it doesn't serve one's agenda. You're admittedly walking a thin line with your questions, but I don't think they're unwarranted.
One problem is that "coaching skills" are usually less quantifiable than on-the-court/field/whatever skills.

[burnspbesq]

Am I to believe that no minority football coach would take our job and only 3 minority women's basketball coaches are capable of leading our program??

Wow! Call it what you like, but no one seems to know (or wants to comment on) my original question. Have we ever hired a minority head coach for any our NCAA teams? Additionally, have we ever interviewed a minority for a head coaching positioin. I don't know the answer to these questions.

Yes, you are to believe that -- if you care about the truth.

If you are, say, Tyrone Willingham, and you are being pursued (hypothetically, as we have no way of knowing whether this actually happened) by Duke and Washington, why on earth would you choose Duke? If you are Karl Dorrell, a UCLA grad who if finally getting some traction (on and off the field) against USC, why on earth would you leave UCLA for Duke? If you are Sylvester Croom, and you have a chance to be the first African-American head coach in the SEC, why on earth would you pass on that opportunity to be the head football coach at a basketball school?

As far as women's basketball coaches, I would have thought it transparently obvious that I was referring to Dana Chatman, C. Vivian Stringer, and Dawn Staley. If you think I've overlooked some other African-American head coaches who would have been preferable to Coach P as a replacement for Coach G, I'd love to hear your ideas.

As far as your precise questions are concerned, the answer to the first (no) is both a matter of public record and well known to all Duke fans. I'm sure you knew the answer, and asked the question as a rhetorical device. The answer to the second is unknown, and that's fine. Fans' desire to know is properly subordinated to the privacy rights of unsuccessful interviewees.

Look, your user id makes your agenda fairly clear. There are ample reasons to judge Alleva harshly without resorting to unfounded and borderline-defamatory innuendo.

[Kewlswim]

Hi,

If it appears there are not enough minority coaches with the experience and track-record necessary to be Head Coaches at high-profile schools, how do we as a society make it so that these under-represented coaches get the experience necessary to be able to land jobs at top programs? I don't believe there is instituational racism at Duke, for example, but I do believe when we want to hire a LAX coach--white or black--it is hard to find one that fits what we are trying to do here. Is the answer in having more African-American Assistant Coaches as Coach K has done (ie Tommry, Jeff, etc.)? Does Coach Roof have assistants who could take over for him (I think there are a ton of African-American Coaches who could do the job better than he has and would want to coach at Duke, but apparently I am in the distinct minority when it comes to this point. Please remember that if one is successful at a historically Black college and gets the head job on the Duke football team, that person would receive a nice increase in salary--something I am sure would be welcome). I would go as far as to say I would welcome a female AD. It would be super if there were qualified women who wanted the job. I would be very proud of Duke if they hired an African-American woman as its AD--I bet (I am trying to be nice here) there are lots of women with no experience who would show better sense than Alleva has shown the last few years. Perhaps women who would know what to say about the WBB during, say, the NCAA tournament! My goodness, I am starting to sound grumpy and I was in a good mood today.

GO DUKE!

[Classof06]

I'm not going to say there's institutionalized racism, but there are things that make you scratch your head. Gary Parrish is not some New York City columnist who has no idea what he's talking about. The guy is from Mississippi, which has 2 SEC schools in its state. I'm not saying everything Parrish says must be taken as truth, but all he did was tell the facts. Here are a few more in both football and basketball

Though not in the SEC, someone brought up Ty Willingham. Willingham won his first 8 games at ND, two over Top 10 teams, finishing 10-3 his first year. But after struggling the next few years, he was fired. Charlie Weis goes 9-3 in his first season, but gets a 10 year, $30-$40 million extension before the year even runs out. Weis has yet to lead ND to a single win as an underdog.

At Alabama, Sylvester Croom, an Alabama Alum and assistant coach for 11 years, was clearly the most qualified candidate for their football vacancy a few years ago. Croom, who was widely considered the frontrunner, ends up losing out to Mike Shula, who had minimal experience in comprasion to Croom. John Mitchell, Croom's former Alabama teammate said shortly thereafter that Alabama would never hire an African-American coach "because nobody there has the guts to pull the trigger."

With Arkansas, Stan Heath replaced Nolan Richardson, the black coach who led Arkansas to the NC in 1994. But what people don't remember is that at the time Heath was hired, Richardson had a lawsuit pending against the University's Board of Trustees for creating a "racially discriminatory environment".

With Tubby Smith, I'm not going to say he got fired because he was black, but I think we all know Kentucky basketball has its history with race relations, or lack thereof. Adolph Rupp wasn't exactly an integrationist and the Rex Chapman confessions of a few years ago are the most recent examples.


Like Parrish says, these are the facts. Make of them what you will...

[arnie]

You can assume I have another agenda with my postname - but this problem goes a lot deeper than our AD or previous AD's. I am a Duke fan but did not know if we had ever hired a minority coach in any sport until now. You and the other posters can make all the excuses you like, but I find it embarrasing that Duke has never, never, never hired a minority coach in any sport!

Again, DBR links to the SEC in which they are accused of firing a minority coach and we have never, never, never hired one.

[darthur]

Again, DBR links to the SEC in which they are accused of firing a minority coach and we have never, never, never hired one.

Maybe someone at the DBR just thought it was interesting... Nowhere do they say anything about agreeing with it.

[phaedrus]

Interesting coaching pyramids:

~50% of the Division IA football scholarship athletes are African-American
~25% of the assistant coaches in Division I football are African-American
~3% of all Division IA football programs have an African-American head coach

~50% of the Division IA football scholarship athletes are White
~75% of the assistant coaches in Division I football are White
~97% of all Division IA football programs have a White head coach

Who hires coaches? College presidents & athletic directors
~95% of Division I schools have White presidents
~89% of Division I athletic directors are White

To become a qualified candidate, I think you need to have a real opportunity. Many African-American coaches are placated into positions that provide no real opportunity to move up. “Real Opportunities” is where racism takes its invisible hold. Can we say “Good Ol’ Boy Network?” Honestly, this is a reality in almost every sector in the US. We don’t like it, but it’s immutable (often unseen… but still immutable). It is what it is, folks.

That’s all I have to say…

if being an assistant coach isn't being in a position to move up, then what is?

[Uncle Drew]

I read this post the other day along with the initial article but didn't have time to respond until today. But would someone please explain to me why it's important to have a quota based on race, gender etc. that must be adhered to? Years ago many schools assumed it would be good to hire a black coach because they could recruit black players better. John Thompson stated many times he didn't recruit white players because they already had a huge advantage and didn't need assistance. We rake Rupps ghost over the coals for taking the same stance in recruiting, but demonize him for being "white biased". The Imus situation while unfortunate all around showed me how vast the double standard about racism is in this country. (The LAX case taught me a lot too.) But we all know Chris Rock says the same type things about blacks and whites on stage, but it's okay because he's black. Any player who goes to a particular school because their coach is the same race is idiotic. But any school that feels they have to hire a coach of a particular race is just as stupid. In any vacancy the best candidate for the job should be hired regardless of what race they are, despite what some affirmative action quota wants to say.
According to Gary Parish he is ashamed at SEC schools for not hiring black candidates to fill vacancies in football and basketball. Would a hispanic or asian coach be a positive or negative? How about a female coach? Duke has benefitted a lot from players of mixed race in the Coach K era. (Battier, Langdon etc.) If one of them were to become coach at a school some day, does that count towrads the quota or is it nulified due to the coach being part white? I fully realize the injustices suffered by Americans of African descent from the time they stepped foot in the colonies. And God knows no group of people should have had to go through what they did. But at what point is affirmative action, racial double standards etc. enough? There are so many people of mixed race in this country right now (Black, white and every other combination under the sun...I myself have Cherokee blood.) and in 50 years statistics say the majority of citizens will be of mixed race. So when does it all end? When do we face the truth that we are quickly moving to a society where a persons race will require the multiple choice answer e. all of the above? How is an organization that seeks to benefit one particular race any different than the Klan? (Aside from the hoods, cross burning etc.) Is that not the very definition of racism? One can make all the laws and quotas they want to fight racial injustices. But like social security the best intentions often having lingering negative affects with no end in sight.

[hughgs]

You can assume I have another agenda with my postname - but this problem goes a lot deeper than our AD or previous AD's. I am a Duke fan but did not know if we had ever hired a minority coach in any sport until now. You and the other posters can make all the excuses you like, but I find it embarrasing that Duke has never, never, never hired a minority coach in any sport!

Again, DBR links to the SEC in which they are accused of firing a minority coach and we have never, never, never hired one.

Now you've confused me. Are you merely embarrassed by the fact that Duke has never (seemingly) hired a black head coach or do you still think that there is some sort of institutional racism going on at Duke? You're accusations seemed to have changed and I can't tell if your position has changed.