Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 25, 1994                   TAG: 9412290052
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INCREASE IN BLACK HEAD COACHES DOESN'T DIMINISH DEBATE

That's not to say the racial makeup of field leadership has undergone a dramatic shift. A month ago there were three black head coaches among 107 Division I-A football programs. The hirings of Tyrone Willingham at Stanford and Bob Simmons at Oklahoma State bumped the number up to five.

It's too early to say whether it's a trend or mere happenstance. The number of black head coaches in major-college football peaked at five in 1991, dropped to none a year later and rose to three before the 1993 season, when Temple, Eastern Michigan and Wake Forest filled their top slots with blacks.

So while the Stanford and Oklahoma State hirings gave minorities two high-visibility jobs, they didn't make many black assistants turn cartwheels.

``I hope it's not just two isolated incidents,'' said Charlie Coe, a 21-year veteran who is Pittsburgh's assistant head coach. ``But I'm glad to see what's happened is happening.''

Some coaches probably share the pessimism voiced by Alex Wood, a Wake Forest assistant who is active in the Black Coaches Association. ``The numbers are terrible,'' Wood said. ``You're never going to make any serious headway if you hover around five.''

NCAA officials for years have expressed concern over the dearth of minority coaches in football, but the media and public seemed to take little notice until Colorado passed over Simmons last month and hired Rick Neuheisel, who is white, to succeed head coach Bill McCartney.

Simmons had spent seven years on Colorado's staff, had risen to assistant head coach and reportedly had received a glowing recommendation from the departing coach. Neuheisel, who has a total of seven years' coaching experience but was thought to be a hot young prospect, had just completed his first year as the Buffaloes' receivers and quarterbacks coach.

Jesse Jackson, president and founder of the National Rainbow Coalition and a potential 1996 presidential candidate, labeled Neuheisel's hiring a ``blatant example of racism'' in a letter to Colorado President Judith Albino. Jackson threatened a national effort to discourage potential recruits from signing with Colorado.

The accusation shook Albino, who chairs the powerful NCAA Presidents Commission. In a reply letter to Jackson, she conceded ``we can do better'' on minority hiring but categorically rejected his assertion that race was a factor in the Colorado search. Albino noted that four of the nine members of Colorado's 1994 coaching staff are black. Most major schools have only one or two minority assistants on their football staffs.

The furor diminished when Simmons landed at Oklahoma State. But the controversy left many veteran black assistants shaking their heads and trained the spotlight on a troubling issue for the NCAA.

``Obviously, there's been some progress made,'' said former Baylor coach Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. ``There probably needs to be more.''

According to NCAA figures for the 1993-94 academic year, blacks composed about a quarter of the 28,528 men and women Division I-A scholarship athletes. Representation among head coaches wasn't nearly as high: Excluding historically black schools, only 4.3 percent of Division I-A and I-AA head coaches were black.

``The last time I saw that much labor-management division in an industry, it was called slavery,'' said Charles Farrell, national director of the Washington-based Rainbow Commission for Fairness in Athletics, which is a branch of the Rainbow Coaltion. Farrell says he will raise the question of minority representation at the NCAA convention next month in San Diego.

Meanwhile, the Black Coaches Association will try to push the membership to adopt legislation that would add a third graduate assistant in football, reserved for minorities. The NCAA has limited schools to two graduate assistants in a cost-cutting effort, but the BCA said the move wound up limiting opportunities for minorities.

According to BCA statistics, fewer than 4 percent of the Division I-A football graduate assistants are black, compared with about 49 percent of the players.