ATLANTA (AP) — Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman felt more comfortable Monday night talking about the national championship his players had a chance to win than the history they accomplished. .
Still, it was hard to ignore the connection of Freeman’s fate. Freeman is First black coach to win college title Everything that happened in America that day, at the highest level of America’s favorite sport Notre Dame lost to Ohio State 34-23.
Monday, January 20th was National Title Day, but it was also the day the United States celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. and the inauguration of Donald Trump for a second term as president. Dr. King dedicated his life to fighting for inclusivity and equality. Diversity efforts are under increasing scrutiny on college campuses today.
“The timing of Marcus Freeman and Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a powerful symbol that should be viewed with caution and optimism,” said Joseph Cooper, director of the Institute for Innovative Leadership in Sports at the University of Massachusetts. “And the incoming administration and their public commitments to roll back DEI policies reflect not only the breaking down of barriers to first movers, but the perils and long journey we still have to travel.”
Freeman’s potential breakthrough comes more than 40 years after the first Black basketball coach did the same, and it’s a sign of the unrelenting minority that has cast a shadow over college sports for decades. ‘s recruiting record shows how much progress these sports still have to make. Take it home.
“The black coaches of today are the black quarterbacks of the ’70s,” said Rod Broadway, who coached at historically black schools Grambling State University and North Carolina A&T. He talked about the once-unusual sight of playing.
Recent trends cloud the path forward for Black coaches.
The backlash against affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives reached a fever pitch in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement following the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
since then, The Supreme Court rejected affirmative action In the admissions process of universities and colleges. Florida eliminated funding. Allow public universities to use it for DEI programs. Governing law transgender sports It spread throughout the state.
Against this backdrop, the question arises as to whether soccer reflects society, changes society, or is neither.
Heading into this year’s postseason, Black men held 11.9% of head coaching positions at college football’s highest level. That’s nearly 7% less than the NFL, which adopted the Rooney Rule in 2003 and required teams to interview minority candidates to fill open spots.
There is no such rule in college sports, aside from the efforts of the West Coast Conference, which does not play football.
Freeman, the son of an African-American father and a Korean mother, looked thoughtful when asked 11 days ago about the historic nature of Penn State’s semifinal win against fellow Black coach James Franklin. I showed you.
“This is an honor,” Freeman said. “It’s an honor for all coaches, minorities, black, Asian, white, it doesn’t matter. I hope great people continue to have the opportunity to lead young people like this.” Ta.
Freeman knows his success goes beyond football
The coach’s most scathing comments about race and his role in expanding opportunity came not while Notre Dame was currently in the playoffs, but rather when he took over in 2021. Ta.
“I want to demonstrate what someone can do and at what level they can do it if given the opportunity,” he said. “Because that’s what we need: an opportunity.”
But it’s been 41 years since Georgetown’s John Thompson became the first black coach to win a national basketball title, and 26 years since Purdue’s Carolyn Peck became the first women’s team to win one. , such opportunities in the football world are relatively few and far between.
One of the agencies that monitors minority recruitment in American sports gave the university a “C” on its last annual report card.
Richard Lapchick, founder of UCF’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, said it was “inevitable” that a Black coach would reach soccer’s title game. “But that inevitability has taken much longer than most people expected a long time ago.”
HBCU coaches wonder if there’s momentum behind Freeman’s moment
Now retired and living in South Carolina, Broadway is filled with mixed emotions as he watches this play unfold from afar.
He told a story about when he was asked to interview for an open head coaching position at a major university in the early 2010s. Mr. Broadway said that as he descended the airport escalator on his way to the interview, television cameras caught his every move.
He recalled his firm belief that the cameras were sent solely to record the school interviewing black candidates, not to take the interviews seriously.
“With God as my witness, I made a U-turn and started climbing the other escalator,” he said. “That was the most (expletive) interview I’ve ever had in my life.”
His view of the reality of black coaches getting big jobs in college football hasn’t changed much since then.
He says he remains discouraged by the lack of a vibrant pipeline for young Black coaches.
And just as no one knows whether Freeman’s rise marks a point in time or a sign of progress, the recent rise of Deion Sanders and black former NFL players Michael Vick (Norfolk State) and Deshaun・Broadway has the same doubts about Jackson’s employment (Delaware State). Are they opening doors or just filling empty spaces?
“I know there are a lot of African American coaches who would love to be in the game if they have the opportunity,” Broadway said. “But there are some good coaches who haven’t taken the opportunity.”
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This story has been corrected. A previous version incorrectly referenced Freeman as Notre Dame’s first black head coach.
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