Coaches Association to develop programs designed to recruit, train, and retain ethnic minority coaches.
Intermedi
ate Goal (to be accomplished by August 2004)
Create additional professional development programs for ethnic minority coaches, such as BCA Achieving Coaching Excellence programs and the BCA National Convention.
Develop materials highlighting coaching as a career to student-athletes.
Long-Term Goal (to be accomplished by August 2005)
Achieve an overall 20% success rate in the hiring of ethnic minorities for Division I (excluding historically black colleges) head football positions that have opened since the conclusion of the 2002 football season.
Recommend that athletics administrative staff and head coaches attend NCAA-sanctioned diversity education workshops at least once every three years to enhance their understanding and value of diversity.
Recommend that employment contracts for head coaches and athletic directors include incentive clauses that reward them for hiring and mentoring minority coaches.
A Mixed Performance
When Karl Dorrell was hired as head coach for the UCLA Bruins in December 2002, he became only the 17th African American to lead a Division 1-A football squad. This historical listing of black head coaches shows that while several coaches have struggled with their programs, some have exceeded their teams’ 10-year winning percentage. Willie Jeffries, the pioneer who became the first African American to coach at this level, went on to Howard University and South Carolina State University and amassed an impressive career record of 174-130-6.
| Name | College | Year(s) | Record | Winning % | School’s Previous 10-Year Winning % |
| Willie Jeffries | Wichita State | 1979 — 82 | 21-32-2 | .40 | .30 |
| Dennis Green | Northwestern | 1981 — 85 | 10-45-0 | .18 | .20 |
| Cleve Bryant | Ohio University | 1985 — 89 | 9-44-2 | .18 | .44 |
| Wayne Nunnely | Nevada-Las Vegas | 1986 — 89 | 19-25-0 | .43 | .55 |
| Francis Peay | Northwestern | 1986 — 91 | 13-51-2 | .21 | .12 |
| Dennis Green | Stanford | 1989 — 91 | 16-18-0 | .48 | .43 |
| Willie Brown | Long Beach State | 1991 | 2-9-0 | .18 | .44 |
| James Caldwell | Wake Forest | 1993 — 00 | 26-63-0 | .29 | .44 |
| Ron Cooper | Eastern Michigan | 1993 — 94 | 9-13-0 | .41 | .40 |
| Matt Simon | U. of North Texas | 1994 — 97 | 18-26-1 | .41 | .45 |
| Ron Cooper | Louisville | 1995 — 97 | 13-20-0 | .39 | .49 |
| Bob Simmons | Oklahoma State | 1995 — 00 | 31-37-0 | .46 | .47 |
| Tyrone Willingham | Stanford | 1995 — 01 | 44-36-1 | .55 | .48 |
| John Blake | U. of Oklahoma | 1996 — 98 | 13-21-0 | .38 | .70 |
| Tony Samuel | New Mexico State | 1997 — 02 | 26-42-0 | .38 | .23 |
| Jerry Baldwin | Louisiana-Lafayette | 1999 — 01 | 6-27-0 | .18 | .42 |
| Bobby Williams | Michigan State | 1999 — 02 | 16-17-0 | .48 | .50 |
| Fitzgerald Hill | San Jose State | 2001 — 02 | 9-16-0 | .36 | .37 |
| Tyrone Willingham | Notre Dame | 2002 | 10-3-0 | .77 | .67 |
| Karl Dorrell | UCLA | 2003 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Passed Over Again
The 2003 Racial and Gender Report Card released in April 2003 shows that while African Americans continue to make up more than 40% of the player base for NCAA Division 1-A football, the shockingly low number of black coaches and athletic directors creates a disparity that the league is finally beginning to address. The 12th issue of the report card studied players, coaches, and front office/athletic department employees of major league baseball, the NFL, NBA, NHL, WNBA, Major League Soccer, and college