COLUMN: Race shouldn't be an issue
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Associate Sports Editor
On New Year's Day, Tyrone Willingham was hired as the first black head coach at Notre Dame. Significant? You bet. Historical? Sure.
But to think that Willingham was hired because he was black is preposterous.
When Kevin White traveled around the country looking for a replacement for Bob Davie, he wasn't trying to find someone whose skin complexion happened to be different from his own. He was looking for a football coach who can win.
Willingham's race had nothing to do with his success on the football field. He would have been hired if he had blond hair, blue eyes or skin covered with pink and purple polka dots. White was able to keep race and success as separate as George O'Leary and honesty.
Consider the following: Two-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year. Four bowl appearances, including a 1998 Rose Bowl berth. A conference championship. Three victories in five tries against the Irish. And all this at a school with academic requirements at least as tough as those he will face at Notre Dame.
"All the football pundits, professionally or collegiately, say this guy is a great football coach. And we knew that in the beginning," White said. "[Race] was never an issue."
Race was never an issue to an athletic director looking to find someone who could bring Notre Dame football back among the nation's elite programs. Unfortunately, it became an issue to just about everyone else.
On day two of O'Leary's five-day reign, Jesse Jackson suggested Notre Dame should have strongly considered a minority candidate. And whenever Jackson starts suggesting, race immediately becomes an issue.
Never mind the fact that White interviewed Willingham before he talked to O'Leary. Jackson was upset because the most high-profile college football program in the country didn't hire a minority head coach.
And when Willingham was hired, Jackson turned around and praised Notre Dame for making a great hire, saying Willingham was the best candidate all-along for the coaching job. But does anyone really think that he would have said Notre Dame got the right guy if the Irish picked Jon Gruden, Steve Mariucci or Mike Bellotti?
Jackson does have a point by saying the hiring is a tremendous triumph for minority coaches. Including Willingham, only four out of 115 Division I-A football coaches are black. That's just unacceptable.
But how many more minority coaches need to be hired before that number reaches an acceptable level? For that matter, what is the acceptable number? 10? 20? 50?
American society has come a long way from the days when white offensive lineman refused to block for a black quarterback. Now, Carlyle Holiday and Matt LoVecchio can battle for the starting quarterback position and have it be a fierce competition between friends rather than an epic racial clash. And if a white quarterback hands off to a black running back, nobody thinks twice about it. As soon as the shoulder pads are strapped on and the ball is placed on the field, only one thing becomes important — winning.
However, as the hoopla surrounding Willingham's hiring has shown, the instant you step off the field, you step into a whirlwind of issues.
The Irish will undoubtedly reap added benefits because Willingham is black. When he walks into a high school senior's living room to sell Notre Dame, the articulate, well-educated, well-rounded coach may even sway a few recruits simply because he is black. And Notre Dame will probably be regarded highly by several minority organizations because it hired a black coach.
But the very fact that Notre Dame is earning national praise shows how much further our society has to go. Terms like `social significance' shouldn't even be brought up in a press conference involving a football 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.
Tyrone Willingham wasn't hired because he is black, just like Bob Davie wasn't fired because he is white. Willingham was brought in to win after it became clear Davie could not. Somehow, that has gotten lost in the analysis of his skin color.
"Is this significant?" Willingham said the day he was hired. "Yes. I say it is significant. But I am first and foremost a football coach at the University of Notre Dame. The young men will expect me to be that, to be the kind of leader that they expect their fathers to be and that's the role that I will try to go for."
That's also the role he was hired for and that's the role he'll be judged in. He can follow Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz if he wins, or he'll join Faust and Davie if he doesn't.
A year from now, alumni won't care what color Willingham's skin is, they'll only care if the Irish are playing a football game on Jan. 1, 2 or 3.
Call it a social statement. Call it an event of historical importance. Call it whatever you want.
Just don't forget that at the end of next season, his skin color won't matter.
His record will.
The views of this column are those of the author and are not necessarily those of The Observer. Contact Andrew Soukup at asoukup@nd.edu.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, January 16, 2002
