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Washington’s Tyrone Willingham One
Of Few Black Head Football Coaches |
NCAA President Myles Brand, speaking at a hearing at the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee yesterday, indicated that he “does not think Congress needs to impose mandates on schools to hire or consider minorities,” according to Maureen Groppe of GANNETT NEWS SERVICE. Instead, Brand said that schools should “shed their ‘risk-averse nature’ in hiring coaches, and improve the informal hiring networks so more minority candidates are in the mix when decisions are made.” Brand: “The next Lovie Smith or Tony Dungy is already in the pipeline. We simply have to hire them for the top jobs.” Groppe notes the number of black head coaches in men’s college basketball “has steadily increased” to about 25%, but the “disparity is worse in college football.” Excluding historically black schools, only 14 — or 2.4% — coaches are black. While Brand said after the hearing that he “thinks Congress is right to draw attention to the issue, he does not believe congressional action is the answer.” Brand: “We have in place all the mandates we need. They have to be actualized” (
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, 3/1). More Brand: “Sadly, if the pace of progress remains the same, it will be approximately 80 years before we reach a percentage [of football coaches] that even approximates the number of African-Americans in the general population” (
USA TODAY, 3/1).
TITLE VII: The AP’s Joseph White notes Title VII of the ’64 Civil Rights Act makes it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race. White: “Perhaps ... it’s time to make Title VII do for black coaches what Title IX did for women's sports” (AP, 3/1).
