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This is about giving black coaches more opportunities to get a chance at head coaching jobs.
Notice I didn't say "preferences," or "affirmative action," or "quotas," or "enacting the Rooney Rule," which is practiced in the NFL. The Rooney Rule requires minority candidates to be included when head coaching jobs come open. It's an interesting thought though, considering the last Super Bowl teams were coached by African Americans.
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| Paul 'Bear' Bryant began recruiting blacks to Alabama in the 1970s. (US Presswire) |
In Turning the Tide, authors John Yeager, Sam Cunningham and John Papadakis called the game between USC and Alabama in 1970, "the game that changed the game."
Yeager is a writer, Cunningham was USC's tailback and Papadakis a Trojan linebacker. To make a long story short USC came into Alabama's backyard and took the Tide to the woodshed 42-21. The score didn't begin to reflect the beating Alabama suffered.
If the game had been played this season no one would be surprised. But back then it was a cataclysmic event. Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant went to the locker room and congratulated USC coach John McKay and his players.
The next year Bryant went to L.A. to visit McKay. In a Los Angeles Times interview he said black players were the difference in the Trojans' win. Every touchdown was scored by a black player. He went on to say that next year two black players, who turned out to be Wilbur Jackson and John Mitchell, would be on Alabama's squad and three more black players would be on the freshman team.
By 1973, one third of Alabama's players were black. For years Bryant had defended the all-white policy, saying in effect that change was impossible because of the social and political climate.
Black players in college football were nothing new. But this was Bryant and this was Alabama -- a state that received a ton of bad publicity because of years of segregation battles, which included George Wallace and his minions. Alabama football was, and still is, a source of enormous pride. Integration was a powerful and divisive issue three decades ago. The guy that broke the mold was the difference.
As one of my readers pointed out a couple of columns ago we need to get beyond racial issues. I couldn't agree more. Look how far we've come: Roughly 60 percent of college football players are black.
College football's atmosphere is also an example of racial diversity at its best. Fans don't so much see teams as black or white. They see them as young men who are representing their university.
But there's still a side of this issue that cries out for change. Having played at the college and pro levels, coaches make the engine go. They are the teachers and enforcers of rules, plays and schemes. Coaches are your worst enemy and your best friend.
There are at least 50 black coaches who have the skill and personality to lead young men. Why then are black coaches still at the back of the bus?
