When George O'Leary was hired, Jesse Jackson stuck his nose into the world of athletics and suggested Notre Dame should hire a minority football coach.

After all, only four out of 115 NCAA Division I football coaches are black, an absolutely pathetic number. And after Tyrone Willingham was hired, Jackson and other civil rights leaders praised the move, saying it marked a historical step forward for all minority football coaches.

However, the tiny number of black coaches isn't the most important point. Neither is Jackson's meddling.

The real problem is that race is even an issue at all.

Notre Dame hired the most qualified football coach available. It didn't hire a black football coach.

Tyrone Willingham would have been hired if he had blond hair, blue eyes or pink and purple polka dots as long as he was the institutional fit Notre Dame was looking for.

Willingham was hired because he succeeded while facing tough academic standards. He was hired because he's taken Stanford to four bowl games, beaten Notre Dame three out of five times, and been named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year twice. In short, he was hired because he can win.

"All the football pundits, professionally or collegiately, say this guy is a great football coach. And we knew that in the beginning," Kevin White said. "[Race] was never an issue."

The fact that White hired Willingham solely based on his accomplishments showed that he was able to keep football and race as separate as George O'Leary and honesty.

Too bad the rest of us aren't as talented.

Sure, society has come a long way from the days where white offensive lineman refused to block for a black quarterback. Thanks to social advancements made by Jackson and countless others before him, Carlyle Holiday and Matt LoVecchio can compete against each other for the starting quarterback position and be best of friends instead of the competition turning into an epic battle between races.

Instead of walking into a silent locker room with whites on one side and blacks on the other, Holiday can see his teammates joking around. And LoVecchio doesn't hesitate to throw a pass to a black receiver or hand off to a black running back because he doesn't have to worry about taking heat from his white teammates who play the same positions.

But there's still a long way to go. Terms like 'social significance' shouldn't even be brought up in a press conference involving a minority coach. Willingham's hiring shouldn't give Notre Dame a recruiting boost or any other added benefits. Notre Dame shouldn't be a social pioneer simply because it hired a black head coach.

And the hoopla from civil rights leaders like Jackson surrounding Willingham's hiring shows just how far we have to go to make race a non-issue.

To call Notre Dame and Kevin White racist because Willingham wasn't hired the first time around, as several national civil rights organizations have implied, is preposterous. Then, for those same civil rights organizations to turn around and praise Notre Dame and White for eventually hiring Willingham equally ridiculous.

Although Notre Dame has said it hopes to improve minority rates in its administration, it wasn't looking for a black coach. The Irish wanted the best coach. That Willingham happened to be black was sheer coincidence.

"Thomas Aquinas has a way of describing essentials and accidents," said University President Father Edward Malloy. "The essentials about Tyrone — outstanding coach, excellent reputation, great track record, great institutional fit. Accidents — high-profile African-American coach, high-profile position."

Tyrone Willingham wasn't hired because he is black, just like Bob Davie wasn't fired because he was white. Willingham was brought in to win after it became clear Davie could not.

Notre Dame and White are earning national praise for hiring the first black coach in school history. And like Jackson and others have said, it is a huge step forward for minority football coaches across America. But the very fact that Notre Dame is being praised for hiring a minority head coach shows just how many more steps we have to take.

White didn't pick Willingham only because the genes that control skin pigmentation happened to be different from 111 other Division I head football coaches. Willingham emerged as the top choice because he best embodied Notre Dame ideals.

During his tenure as athletic director at Arizona State, White slowly learned more about the conference-rival Stanford football coach. He admired Willingham's success at an institution with strict academic standards. And he respected Willingham's no-nonsense, disciplinarian approach on the football field and his personality and integrity off of it.

"Tyrone represents a very high-end football coach who just happens to be African-American. And will we enjoy some residual benefits from that? Absolutely," said White. "But that wasn't why we chose him."

Kevin White doesn't want race to be an issue. Tyrone Willingham doesn't want race to be an issue.

So why is it?

• Race shouldn't be a factor