Hiring three new black college football coaches is a good start

For years now, Floyd Keith has been beating his head against a wall, trying to get college presidents and athletic directors to listen to him. Keith, the executive director of the Black Coaches & Administrators, an organization that lobbies for, among other things, the hiring of African-American coaches in big time college football, has been pleading with institutions that should be bastions of diversity to live up to that creed in athletics. The hiring of three black head coaches this past week, namely Charlie Strong at Louisville, Mike London at Virginia and Turner Gill at Kansas, suggests that the efforts of Keith and others like him may finally be paying off.

"Every now and then we've got to look at the good things and we see the intent," Keith told Fanhouse.com. "At least we are seeing some evidence of a breakthrough so that's good. I commend the athletic directors and presidents for being attentive and being inclusive and giving opportunities, which hasn't always been the case."

Until last week, only nine of the 120 coaches at the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level of the NCAA (previously known as Division I-A), were African-American. The incongruity of that figure placed against the large number of black players was striking, and had drawn scorn from a variety of corners. Indeed, just last Sunday, during NBC's "Football Night in America" pregame show, former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy called the hiring practices at FBS schools "disgraceful."

Dungy, the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl, relayed the story of how he had recommended Mike Tomlin to a high level Division I-A school after the 2006 season, but that Tomlin didn't even rate an interview.

A month later, Tomlin was hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers as head coach. Last year, Tomlin became the second black man to coach a Super Bowl champion. "They've got to step up and say, 'We're going to do the right thing. We're going to hire qualified people. We're going to hire the best man for the job regardless of what boosters or anyone else has to say,"' Dungy said.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of the small apparent hiring boom is where they'll work. Strong, currently the defensive coordinator at Florida and London, the head coach at Richmond as well as Gill who is leaving Buffalo, all will coach at Bowl Championship Series (BCS) schools.

Membership in the BCS - comprised of schools from the six most powerful conferences and independent Notre Dame - affords the highest prestige and visibility in college sports. Yet, until last week, only one of the 66 schools in the BCS, Miami (Fla.) hired a black man, Randy Shannon. Now, there are four, with one of them, London, being hired by another African-American man, Craig Littlepage, Virginia's athletic director.

The raw numbers suggest that Floyd Keith's work is not yet finished. But, at least, there are more black coaches in the game with a chance to succeed, which is all they've ever asked for.

"It's a tremendous honor," London said. "I understand the significance. But I always want it to be known that [anyone] should hire me because I'm the best candidate. I want to be hired because of that."