Contentious Hire Puts Spotlight on Black Coaches [View all]

[Blue_Tires]

For more than two decades, Fitzgerald Hill has fought to have minority and African-American head football coaches hired at predominantly white colleges and universities. In his new book, “Crackback: How College Football Blindsides the Hopes of Black Coaches,” written with the veteran journalist Mark Purdy, Hill, a former head coach at San Jose State, tells about those efforts. He uses “crackback” as a metaphor to describe what often happens to black candidates seeking head coaching jobs at predominantly white universities.


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Last week Hill was surprised when Alcorn State, a historically black university in Lorman, Miss., announced the hiring of Jay Hopson as its coach. Hopson, 43, became the first white head football coach in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities.

Hill had mixed reactions to the hiring.

“I’m not disappointed, it seems like H.B.C.U.s are saying, ‘We’re moving forward in the 21st century, and we hired the best coach,’ ” said Hill, the president at Arkansas Baptist College. “It’s a very interesting twist.”

But Hill said he was disturbed by the implications. The hiring of a white football coach at a historically black college — when white institutions have been slow to do the opposite — could also be interpreted as a slap in the face.

“Are you telling me that there was not a qualified football coach anywhere in the United States of America they could have hired to lead that program?” Hill asked, referring to African-American candidates. “It’s interesting to me that Alcorn felt they couldn’t find an African-American to lead their program.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/sports/ncaafootball/alcorn-state-hire-puts-spotlight-on-black-football-coaches.html?pagewanted=all