I am originally from Mississippi. Although I went to the rival University there, I have read and heard about Sylvester Croom coming to Mississippi State and how that this hiring is “so wonderful” for the world of college athletics.
Granted, I think Mr. Croom was an excellent choice. But was he the best choice around, or maybe it is because the color of his skin? Will Coach croom be given more chances to succeed than a white coach? If he does not turn around the program realistically in three years, fired and replaced with another white coach, will there be yells of racist bias? If I was a Notre Dame booster, I would want Tyrone Willingham to be put on notice for 2004, because the Irish were awful this year.
Mississippi is different in 2003 than it was in 1963, or even 1983. The state is over 40 percent black. There are many black mayors and sheriffs now, including the mayor of Jackson (where I lived).
Isn’t it time to lay race aside and just allow people to be people and judged on merits and personality? Croom should of went to Alabama, but maybe Alabama was looking for a young coach with a famous name. That program is in muck. MSU is in better shape for a rebuild and success in the future. Martin Luther ing said that people should be judged by their character, and not skin color, but even now in the 21st Century, we do this, and the NAACP and others tripping all over each other in congratulations oly makes the situation worse.
Congratulations, Coach Croom. Your making Ole Miss scared again.
um…okay. I guess I’ll tackle this. Bear in mind that I am not a sports fan, nor do I know much about football in general.
That said, there is a gross disparity in the numbers of black coaches to black players in virtually every sport. I applaud any team (especially a college team) that attempt to rectify this, especially if they do so in the proper manner- that is, they look for a qualified black candidate instead of a placeholder for the sake of ‘diversity.’ It’s a foothold- quite often the reason that there are not many black (insert profession) is because there aren’t any black (insert profession) out there.
But why is there this lack of black coaches? The best answer that I have actually comes from baseball, but I think it applies here. There are very few ‘marginal’ black athletes competing. Most of the ones that we see are superstars for their teams- moneymakers. Quite often, it is easier for a team to make a decision to field a bunch of mediocre white guys than mediocre black guys because fans will still come out to watch them (witness many of the ‘heartland’ baseball teams and their rosters).
Anyway, this leaves you with a lack of black players who are technically proficient in the sport, but not superstars( ‘thinking players’)- the same pool that recruits coaches and managers among white athletes.
Anyway, it’s just a theory, and certainly not anything that I’m married to. But I do hope that the coach in the OP’s statement will have a chance to succeed at Mississippi State…but also the chance to fail if he is truly a substandard coach.
Given the disparities in numbers, you pretty much have to say that there are a lot of white coaches who’ve gotten their jobs in part because of the color of their skin. There’s no objective reason to worry about Croom’s ability to coach or recruit; in fact he may be more able to attract player talent to MSU than yet another good ol’ white boy who happened to make the rich boosters down at the country club more comfortable inviting him over for golf and drinks.
Stonebow, I’m not sure I 100% agree. Mainly, because football rosters are much larger than baseball rosters. Not everyone on a pro team is a superstar or anything close to it. And a lot are simply roleplayers, especially on the offensive and defensive lines.
I can still remember when Randall Cunningham and Warren Moon were just starting to make an impact. It was considered a novelty because until that time, the quarterback position had been lily white. The leadership and intelligence that were thought essential to the position were thought to be absent in African-American players. So those players were trained as running backs or wide receivers, whereas the white kids were cultivated as quarterbacks. It ended up perpetuating a vicious cycle that thankfully is fading away.
Coaching is similar in many respects. And thankfully, that is fading away.
But to answer the OP, black coaches should be held to the same standards as white coaches. Unfortunately, what may inevitably happen is that each coach who doesn’t succeed will be held up as a model of failure, and proof that “blacks can’t coach.” It’s similar to the Jayson Blair thing - he and Stephen Glass were accused of similar offenses, but Glass was never, ever held up as an example of the problems of promoting whites in the newsroom or used to raise the question of whether whites were inherently unqualified to be journalists. Or, since we’re talking sports, the Donovan McNabb thing. It wasn’t enough for Rush to say he was an overrated quarterback, he felt the need to say that he was overrated because he was black. No one ever accuses Peyton or Eli Manning of being overrated because they’re white.
I sincerely hope Croom succeeds, just as I was glad that Willingham succeeded last year. Because if they don’t, as sometimes they won’t, their failures will be wrongly imputed to the color of their skin, and make it harder for those coming after them.
E.T. Bass, how would you explain the fact that less than five percent of the coaches in Div I college football are black? That is hardly proportional to the percentage of players who are black. NCAA football has one of the worst records for hiring black coaches, and no amount of waiting and hoping MLK seeps through has seemed to do a damn thing.
The problem originates from the fans. Boosters are important to any program, providing money and equipment that is vital to success. Most of the boosters, especially in Southern state schools are old white guys. They don’t particularly care for black coaches. The schools have proven that they need pressure or they will never change.
I am not a liberal, and am very wary of affirmative action. I just don’t see any explanation for the lack of black coaches other than racism.
The main reason why Croom is a good hire for MSU is not because he’s black, but because the man is, by all accounts, a fine coach.
He’s been an assistant in the NFL for 18 seasons, and success has followed him. Most recently, Ahman Green seems to have done OK for himself under Croom’s tutelage.
MSU has won… what, 8 games in the last 3 years? How much turnaround do you expect from a coach?
Mississippi State’s problem isn’t so much the coach as the attitude toward the team. State “fans” are some of the worst fairweather fans I have ever seen.
I attended the school in from fall 2001 until last spring. My freshman year the place was still on a high horse from the previous year’s “Snow Bowl,” which was a pretty cool thing. But the 2001 season was miserable.
At the end of the year, a player who had been regarded as one of the best on the team (I apologize for this, but his name totally escapes me at the moment, my brain is fried from finals) and had been injured stood before the stadium on Senior Night. His performance had been pretty bad, but he was recovering from a knee injury, IIRC. Anyway, he stood there in line with the other graduating players, his wife, and child. On crutches.
This guy had been a top scorer.
And you know what those “State fans” did?
THEY BOOED.
I was completely ashamed to be standing there in maroon and white. Apparently I was one of very few who felt that way.
Part of me wonders if State’s miserable record for the past 2 or 3 seasons is related to the “fans.” It’s easy to lose confidence when the slightest screw-up turns your home crowd against you.
As for the new coach, I bet the alumni association won’t like that one bit. I was on the color guard while I was there. We had two uniforms, one a sleeveless tunic with black pants and the other a one-piece long-sleeved velvet suit. For anyone who has ever been to Mississippi in August, the velvet costume should not have been an option. We planned to wear the sleeveless uniform to one of the first games. That idea was shot down by pressure from the alumni on the band director. See, there were about 20 of us. Black, white, a couple Hispanics… one of the most diverse guards I have ever seen. The alumni’s complaint? Our skin tones were too different and we needed to look more alike. As a result, we had to wear the velvet to every single game. I’m surprised we got through the fall without anyone fainting.
In addition to being pretty close to the suckiest sucks that suck in the SEC, isn’t MSU about to go on probation?
This could be a Marvin Lewis-type deal (Cincy coach heavily exceeding expectations in first year coaching previously moribund team): If Croom throws in some early 6-5, 6-6, 7-4 years, he exceeds reasonable expectations and looks like a genius. As long as the fans/administration have patience, I’m betting he’ll succeed. He’s by all accounts an excellent coach, and MSU was a pretty good program not too long ago.
In other words, it’s a “black issue” only to those who want it to be. As previously said, he looks like the best candidate available. And if that’s an unascertainable standard, let’s just say he was a mighty reasonable choice.
I think that whether the relative number of black and white coaches is caused by racism is something that needs to be demonstrated and should not simply be the default answer.
In other words, you can’t just look at an institution (e.g., Congress) or a job category (e.g., CEOs) and then cry racism when the number of minorities in that institution or job category does not exactly match the number of minorities in society at large. Rather, a whole host of factors could be at play that’s different for each institution or job category and each minority you’re looking at.
Also, re: blacks in sports in general, aren’t blacks overrepresented among players in at least some sports (e.g., basketball)? Does this fact show that these sports are racist against whites? If you answered “obviously not” to the last question, then why are you so quick to cry racism when it comes to simply looking at the number of black coaches?
This thread is missing an important fact. This is a “black thing” because Sly Croom is the first black head football coach in the “proud” 80-whatever year history of the Southeastern Conference. As such he has to carry the burden that other black pioneers have faced. If he fucks up it might be a long time before another southern college entrusts a major football program to an African-American coach.
When the news broke a couple days back I talked it over with my boss. ( He’s black; I’m not. ) His take was that if American racial understanding was as advanced as people like to think how come we are still hearing about blacks breaking color barriers? My take was, why in the world would anyone hire a guy who used to coach for the Detroit Lions?
Well, I don’t know. I too am wary to presume racism, but at any rate I’m not sure your comparison works.
It’s my observation/understanding that many, many more African-Americans position themselves to move up through big time basketball than white people. I’m not convinced that many, many, many more white people position aspire to become (head) football coaches than African-Americans (though it could be).
At any rate, also keep in mind that a coaching position evokes more characteristics than sheer physical skill or savvy—it evokes quick-thinking, strategizing, leadership, delegation, commanding of respect. These are all qualities which, for lack of a better explanation, one could perhaps infer that a white owner/alumnus does not believe “Black Candidate X” has—for the simple reason that he’s black. Coaching hires are often pretty subjective and often don’t make sense even at the time they’re made.
So, if I had to guess, I’d imagine that’s why people may be so quick to jump on racism here. YMMV, of course.