Shaun Powell

The most important racial pioneer in sports history was a white man. If not for Branch Rickey, there’d be no Jackie Robinson. At least not as early as 1947, and the color barrier probably wouldn’t have been broken in the proper manner that it was. Not only was Robinson the right man for the job, so was Rickey.

What Rickey did was help change attitudes to the point where a person of color is now running the country.

Yes, we can elect Barack Obama president and pat ourselves on the back. But we can’t get black men hired to coach major college football.

The last barricade on the race front in sports is set up all around State U. A few days ago, when he took the Kansas job, Turner Gill became the 13th black coach among 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools. And only Randy Shannon at Miami has a job at what you’d call a football factory. That sounds straight out of the ‘60s, and yet, that’s actually progress. Big progress. In the past few weeks, four black coaches have been hired. Two Decembers ago, major college football had four black head coaches period.

Where have all the Branch Rickeys gone?

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Last week NBC Sports analyst Tony Dungy called the situation in college football “shameful,” but Dungy, despite his good intentions, shouldn’t be the one speaking out. He doesn’t have any clout. Meaning, Dungy isn’t a white person with power. What Dungy did was no surprise; you’d expect it from the first black coach to win a Super Bowl. Now, if a prominent white football coach or school president said that, then it’d be a surprise.

You see, when it comes to righting the racial wrongs in sports, the voices of dissent are too often black ones. It’s almost like white society is saying, “that’s their problem.” The number of white men who took action on their own (without being pressured) to increase minority hiring in football could fit inside a helmet: Bill Walsh, the late Myles Brand and in the NFL, Dan Rooney. That’s about it. Silence everywhere else.

What else do you expect from college football, where Eddie Robinson, in all his years producing winners at Grambling, never got a single interview from a D-I school?

College football is a different animal than the NFL, where seven out of 32 jobs are held by black men, because college football has a unique system in place.

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The school presidents and athletic directors only carry so much weight in the hiring process. The real muscle comes from boosters, who have tremendous say. Boosters bring the money; therefore, they wield the power. There are very few, if any, boosters for the track and field program or wrestling program or other minor sports, which is why those sports are often headed by black coaches.

But when it comes to the sport that’s the face of the campus, generates the greatest buzz and revenue and involves the most people, progress takes its time.