RETHINKING THE ISSUE: Black Coaches and Racism

  We began this blog in the summer of 2016 with a series on why black college football coaches and sports executives sometimes seem doomed to fail and why a black coach or executive likely would not succeed them.  We used the examples of Texas football
coach Charlie Strong and Houston Texans General Manager Rick Smith, both of whom were under fire from fans and media.Now things have happened that cause us to ask if the world is changing.  

In the last few weeks, institutions with which we are very familiar have picked black basketball coaches to replace failed black coaches.  The University of Arkansas—Little Rock (mostly known now as just “Little Rock”) named Clark Atlanta

University coach Darrell Walker its men’s basketball coach, succeeding Wes Flannigan.  The University of Memphis replaced Tubby Smith with Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway We understand differences exist between a power

five college program like Texas or an NFL franchise on one hand and mid-major college basketball programs like UALR and Memphis on the other.  We’ll examine those differences, but we think the fact these institutions took the path they did remains worth considering.  We should note Rob graduated from both Little Rock and Memphis and Woodson served on UALR’s Board of Visitors for ten years. 

 

 

 

Charlie Strong and Rick Smith

In three posts in July and August of 2016, we explored the difficulties Strong and Smith were having as pioneers in their respective positions.  We noted the view, expressed openly by some and privately by others, that if the Longhorns and the Texans pulled the plug on Strong and Smith, black men wouldn’t replace them.  In November 2016, we saw the handwriting on the wall for Strong and predicted Texas would try to hire Houston coach Tom Herman.  

Texas fired Strong that month and picked Herman.  Smith dangled for another year, but stepped aside after the 2017 season, ostensibly to deal with his wife’s health problems.  Nobody expects him back.  The Texans selected a white general manager, Brian Gaine.  We are not here to argue race discrimination led to either outcome.  The facts are what they are.

 

Darrell Walker and Penny Hardaway

Darrell Walker led the second wave of really good basketball players at Arkansas under Eddie Sutton.  He followed the Sidney Moncrief/Ron Brewer/Marvin Delph triplets and played on excellent Arkansas teams.  The Knicks picked Walker 12^th overall in the 1983 NBA draft.  He played ten years before starting a coaching career that has seen him lead the Toronto Raptors for two seasons, work as an assistant for four teams, serve as interim coach of the Washington Wizards, and coach the WNBA’s Washington Mystics.  He shifted to college coaching at Clark Atlanta where he turned a losing program into a two – season, 45-18 run.  Little Rock expects similar success after a 7-25 disaster under Flannigan in 2017-18.

Hardaway played two seasons at Memphis, then enjoyed an NBA career spanning 1993-2007 during which he was paid $120 million.  Hardaway was initially academically ineligible to play at Memphis, but rebounded with a 3.4 grade point average and returned to earn his degree in 2003.  Memphis hired him to replace Smith, whose career has taken a downturn since his 1996 national championship at Kentucky.

 

Yes, there are differences

The reasons for these different outcomes are obvious and obscure.  First, football isn’t basketball and basketball isn’t football.  When Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles hired  Nolan Richardson

as the first black head coach at a major southern university  he reportedly acknowledged that basketball was becoming a black sport. It follows that coaching would eventually reflect that. Black players filtered into the coaching ranks, creating a pool of young, talented coaches who could move from assistant to head jobs.  While some succeeded and some failed, sheer numbers meant the availability of more black coaches and that more coaches with the qualities athletic directors seek are black. Darrell Walkers and Penny Hardaways don’t grow on trees.  Both have resumes many basketball programs desire in a coach.  For a host of reasons, the process of developing that pool of potential black head coaches has proceeded more slowly in college football.

College football remains the flagship program in most athletic departments.  It’s the one thing an athletic director and university president cannot mess up.  Football pays the bills and university leaders can leave it in the hands of only someone they trust totally.  Is it not possible many ADs and presidents feel they can’t chance a second “experiment” with a black coach?  Indeed, that’s exactly how one sports talk host referred to Strong’s tenure in suggesting Texas wouldn’t hire a second black coach if it decided to dump him.  We wonder if ADs and presidents feel the same pressure with regard to basketball.         

Finally, we think fan bases for college basketball have gotten blacker.  We’re through two generations of integrated southern colleges and universities, meaning more black former students and families identify with once all-white or mostly white colleges.  Our children grew up following the same college teams as anyone else’s kids, not the case in our early years. Then it was rare to know a black graduate of a “white” school.  Acceptance of black coaches generally probably follows from this development.

The hiring of Walker and Hardaway doesn’t mean the problem we identified with Strong and Smith has disappeared.  But, the differences between the sports notwithstanding, we still regard their employment as steps in the right direction and some indication the world is changing for the better.  And you think?