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By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal columnist
POSTED: 02:58 p.m. EST, Dec 04, 2008
The number defies belief.
In NCAA Division I-A football, there are 119 schools. Three of them have African-American coaches.
In a year when Barack Obama was elected president, the number of black head coaches in college football has dwindled to nearly zero.
Paul Winters knows all about it. The former University of Akron assistant coach and player and St. Vincent-St. Mary High School grad sees what is happening from his office at Wayne State, a Division II school in Detroit.
Winters took over a program as head coach in 2004 that had had nine consecutive losing seasons and turned it around. Wayne State went 8-3 this season, and Winters was named the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for the second time in three years.
Yet, Winters has not received a single phone call to interview for a head coaching job in Division I-A.
''I see the people that they are showing interest in,'' Winters said today. ''And I know what I'm capable of. And I know what I've done. The record speaks for itself.
''If you look at the success I've had you at least take the opportunity to talk to me and see if I can put a sentence together.''
There are four jobs available in the Mid-American Conference; none called a guy who is more than qualified to be a coach in the MAC.
Winters played at UA, where he was a standout running back. His resume has everything one would think an athletic director would want.
He has won at Wayne State. He was an outstanding assistant at UA for Jim Denison and Lee Owens — he twice was nominated for the Broyles Award, a national honor recognizing the nation's top Division I-A assistant coach. He has a bachelor's degree from UA in industrial management and a master's degree in education.
He has done everything the right way, yet he looks and sees the same staggering numbers everyone sees: Three black head coaches in 119 schools.
His reaction?
''My stomach churns,'' he said. ''Because everybody has a dream of rising to a certain level of their profession. And you just don't know if the doors are open.''
Winters is no militant. He speaks calmly, patiently, says he has a job he likes and will not move just to move. He just wonders what it takes to get an opportunity.
A coach like Winters can't discuss the reasons for this travesty because if he did he comes across as angry and militant, and angry and militant does not get hired.
Former Clemson coach Terry Bowden was blunt in a Yahoo.com column, though.
Bowden called it discrimination.
''In college football, we are winning games, building programs and making millions of dollars with the sweat and blood of African-American athletes,'' Bowden wrote. ''I should know. In the last dozen years, my family alone has made more than $30 million as Division I-A head football coaches.
''At least once a day, I get asked, 'When are you getting back into coaching?' Heck, schools don't need to hire me. They need to hire from the untapped talent that exists within the pool of black assistant coaches.''
Bowden writes that 95 percent of Division I-A presidents are white, and 89 percent of athletic directors are white.
Yet, there are three black coaches.
Winters looks at a school like Clemson and wonders why it won't hire Turner Gill, who has the University at Buffalo in the MAC Championship Game on Friday. He sees a defensive coordinator like Charlie Strong of the University of Florida wait for an opportunity, and asks why.
It's time the NCAA enacted a ''Rooney Rule'' like the one in the NFL. That requires NFL teams to interview a minority candidate, and helped lead to the hiring of Mike Tomlin with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Winters wonders if that might lead to the token interview, but even the token interview can open doors if the candidate impresses.
Winters recalls interviewing at Eastern Kentucky when Jack Lengyel was the AD. Winters didn't get the job, but he impressed Lengyel to the point that Lengyel told Winters to list him as a reference.
Winters has plenty of references, though. He lists a near ''Who's Who'' of coaches he has worked with who are trying to help him the way Jim Denison helped him get hired at Wayne State.
They include Brad Childress (Minnesota Vikings), Mark D'Antonio (Michigan State), Jim Tressel (his position coach), Lloyd Carr, Bill Callahan, Brady Hoke (Ball State) and Barry Alvarez.
''When I was at Toledo, we interviewed a couple coaches for a wide receiver position,'' Winters said. ''One of the guys I took around on the interview and to know pretty well was Urban Meyer.
''And we didn't hire him.''
That has produced some laughs between the two.
Meyer's career, though, has taken off.
''Maybe I'm not playing the game the way I'm supposed to play it,'' Winters said. ''All I can do is do my job to the best of my ability. In my situation, maybe no one really recognizes the level. Brian Kelly was really good at this level. Just like Jim Tressel was very good at I-AA.
''Maybe you need to hire a marketing firm and an agent and really sell yourself.''
A former player got hired to coach Oklahoma State when Mike Gundy was hired. But Gill, a former player at Nebraska, was bypassed by the Cornhuskers and he now works at Buffalo.
The NCAA numbers make a person look and wonder: Is this as far as we've come?
''The reason [Obama] was elected was because people saw him,'' Winters said. ''It doesn't necessarily mean people are going to see me.
''He had the chance to get out in front of the people who make the decisions.
''As long as you get out in front of the people making the decisions, you have an opportunity.''
It's time the NCAA did something to ensure more coaches like Winters receive that opportunity.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
The number defies belief.
In NCAA Division I-A football, there are 119 schools. Three of them have African-American coaches.
In a year when Barack Obama was elected president, the number of black head coaches in college football has dwindled to nearly zero.
Paul Winters knows all about it. The former University of Akron assistant coach and player and St. Vincent-St. Mary High School grad sees what is happening from his office at Wayne State, a Division II school in Detroit.
Winters took over a program as head coach in 2004 that had had nine consecutive losing seasons and turned it around. Wayne State went 8-3 this season, and Winters was named the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for the second time in three years.
Yet, Winters has not received a single phone call to interview for a head coaching job in Division I-A.
''I see the people that they are showing interest in,'' Winters said today. ''And I know what I'm capable of. And I know what I've done. The record speaks for itself.
''If you look at the success I've had you at least take the opportunity to talk to me and see if I can put a sentence together.''
There are four jobs available in the Mid-American Conference; none called a guy who is more than qualified to be a coach in the MAC.
Winters played at UA, where he was a standout running back. His resume has everything one would think an athletic director would want.
He has won at Wayne State. He was an outstanding assistant at UA for Jim Denison and Lee Owens — he twice was nominated for the Broyles Award, a national honor recognizing the nation's top Division I-A assistant coach. He has a bachelor's degree from UA in industrial management and a master's degree in education.
He has done everything the right way, yet he looks and sees the same staggering numbers everyone sees: Three black head coaches in 119 schools.
His reaction?
''My stomach churns,'' he said. ''Because everybody has a dream of rising to a certain level of their profession. And you just don't know if the doors are open.''
Winters is no militant. He speaks calmly, patiently, says he has a job he likes and will not move just to move. He just wonders what it takes to get an opportunity.
A coach like Winters can't discuss the reasons for this travesty because if he did he comes across as angry and militant, and angry and militant does not get hired.
Former Clemson coach Terry Bowden was blunt in a Yahoo.com column, though.
Bowden called it discrimination.
''In college football, we are winning games, building programs and making millions of dollars with the sweat and blood of African-American athletes,'' Bowden wrote. ''I should know. In the last dozen years, my family alone has made more than $30 million as Division I-A head football coaches.
''At least once a day, I get asked, 'When are you getting back into coaching?' Heck, schools don't need to hire me. They need to hire from the untapped talent that exists within the pool of black assistant coaches.''
Bowden writes that 95 percent of Division I-A presidents are white, and 89 percent of athletic directors are white.
Yet, there are three black coaches.
Winters looks at a school like Clemson and wonders why it won't hire Turner Gill, who has the University at Buffalo in the MAC Championship Game on Friday. He sees a defensive coordinator like Charlie Strong of the University of Florida wait for an opportunity, and asks why.
It's time the NCAA enacted a ''Rooney Rule'' like the one in the NFL. That requires NFL teams to interview a minority candidate, and helped lead to the hiring of Mike Tomlin with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Winters wonders if that might lead to the token interview, but even the token interview can open doors if the candidate impresses.
Winters recalls interviewing at Eastern Kentucky when Jack Lengyel was the AD. Winters didn't get the job, but he impressed Lengyel to the point that Lengyel told Winters to list him as a reference.
Winters has plenty of references, though. He lists a near ''Who's Who'' of coaches he has worked with who are trying to help him the way Jim Denison helped him get hired at Wayne State.
They include Brad Childress (Minnesota Vikings), Mark D'Antonio (Michigan State), Jim Tressel (his position coach), Lloyd Carr, Bill Callahan, Brady Hoke (Ball State) and Barry Alvarez.
''When I was at Toledo, we interviewed a couple coaches for a wide receiver position,'' Winters said. ''One of the guys I took around on the interview and to know pretty well was Urban Meyer.
''And we didn't hire him.''
That has produced some laughs between the two.
Meyer's career, though, has taken off.
''Maybe I'm not playing the game the way I'm supposed to play it,'' Winters said. ''All I can do is do my job to the best of my ability. In my situation, maybe no one really recognizes the level. Brian Kelly was really good at this level. Just like Jim Tressel was very good at I-AA.
''Maybe you need to hire a marketing firm and an agent and really sell yourself.''
A former player got hired to coach Oklahoma State when Mike Gundy was hired. But Gill, a former player at Nebraska, was bypassed by the Cornhuskers and he now works at Buffalo.
The NCAA numbers make a person look and wonder: Is this as far as we've come?
''The reason [Obama] was elected was because people saw him,'' Winters said. ''It doesn't necessarily mean people are going to see me.
''He had the chance to get out in front of the people who make the decisions.
''As long as you get out in front of the people making the decisions, you have an opportunity.''
It's time the NCAA did something to ensure more coaches like Winters receive that opportunity.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
Comments
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Posted 03:32 PM, 12/04/2008
Sometimes I wonder if this is story suggesting AD's will not hire black coaches and I do not think that is the issue at all. If you are a qualified coach you will eventually get noticed. I just don't see why universities must be forced to interview a black individual if they have someone else in mind. It is not about opportunity it is about qualifications at the division 1 or 2 level
Posted 05:36 PM, 12/04/2008
Well then lets force the colleges to have HALF their scholarships be for white men.
If that was the case, you would hear how the players with the most skill should get the scholarship.
If a black coach is good, he will get hired, if not, too bad.
Posted 05:46 PM, 12/04/2008
Mcmanamon, get real! Mike Tomlin was a PROVEN winner and his ABILITY got him the job with the Steelers, not his skin color. Likewise, Romeo Crennel and Marvin Lewis have done TERRIBLE jobs but are not being fired due to there race. I am sure if they were white coaches, BOTH of them would have been fired by now.
So any team should be free to interview only QUALIFIED candidates, black or white.
Posted 06:55 PM, 12/04/2008
I think this article is making an inference that Nebraska (ie Tom Osborne) "might" have passed over Turner Gill because of his skin color. I think that I can safely speak for most Husker fans by saying that this could not be further from the truth. Turner Gill is a beloved former player and coach--a bonafide Husker legend. He is also a close personal friend of Tom Osborne (the man who was making the decision).
Osborne picked Pelini over Gill for a number of valid reasons: 1. NU sorely needed a defensive makeover, and that is Pelini's specialty. 2. NU was not hurting offensively (more Gill's specialty). 3. Pelini had been defensive coordinator on two National Championship teams since last being at Nebraska. 4. Gill had not coached at Buffalo long enough to make him a pick that could be justified. (Keep in mind that before Buffalo, he had not been either an offensive or defensive coordinator, and while miraculous for Buffalo, his record was only 5-7). Had Gill been anyone else with no prior Nebraska history, he wouldn't have even rated the interview, REGARDLESS of his skin color.
If Pelini leaves NU in a few years, and with Gill's continued success, I've no doubt he will be on the top of Nebraska's list. So....I hope that clears it up for you. Leave Turner out of this. Nebraskans love him and only wish we could have BOTH Turner AND Bo as our coach, but we understand why he wasn't selected over Bo.
Akron, OH
Posted 09:30 PM, 12/04/2008
Every Division I school hires the head coach that they think gives them the best chance at winning. Period. Likewise, they get rid of coaches that do not perform. Black, white, green, or purple, the color of skin doesn't matter for any of them. Any perceived racism is brought about by hack sportswriters with no real stories to report on when facing a deadline. They bill it as "being sensitive to the minority community" when in reality it's just a simple cop-out to avoid writing anything of substance.
I hope UA fires JDB and hires one of these supposed multitudes of super-qualified minority coaches. Not because of the color of anyone's skin, but because JDB has nothing more to give that will improve UA's football program.
What I want to know is the ratio of black sportswriters to white sportswriters. How many "African-Americans" are lead writers for the sports page of the ABJ?
Akron, OH
Posted 08:52 AM, 12/05/2008
Maybe Mcmanaman should give up his job to a black guy or be overlooked for a promotion because the ABJ needs a minority in that spot. This is a stupid article.
Posted 10:37 AM, 12/05/2008
I say bring Paul Winters to Akron. We've had enough with Broohart's "Dare to be mediocre" coaching philosophy.
Wadsworth, OH
Posted 11:43 AM, 12/05/2008
Get a Life...it's "reporters" like you that give journalists their reputation. Your paper has 10 pictures in the sports page today showing 19 athletes...all black. So if I were to apply your logic, all other races need to be better represented.
Also keeping that rational in mind, I guess people other than blacks shouldn't be allowed to pay for tickets and go to a game.
Posted 03:16 PM, 12/05/2008
The associated press needs to address the lack of fairness and balance in its news reporting.
Posted 04:22 PM, 12/05/2008
wow not one person in support of this article...though i guess HOW COULD YOU. This is classic Pat McManamon garbage.
Posted 06:49 PM, 12/05/2008
Columnist and BJ editors: Please learn how to spell Jim Dennison's last name. Good thing it's not you listing Coach D on your resumes. They would get tossed in the circular file. Thank you.
Posted 12:37 AM, 12/07/2008
Excellent column Pat. You hit the nail on the head. If colleges are not using the entire pool of talent that is available, then the product will not be as strong as it should be. Let's get real when 70% of the atheletes are of color and there are only 3 head coaches of color the system is terribly out of snyc. Can you say good ol' boy?
