The Chronicle

Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: News
Last update: 12/6/07 at 11:31 AM EST

Deep in record books documenting J.J. Redick's scoring averages and the 1938 Iron Dukes' box scores rests a conspicuous absence of fact. Duke has never employed a black head coach in any sport. For all of its record-breaking achievements, the athletics department with perhaps the foremost national reputation has a stark lack of diversity at the top of its programs.

Duke is far from an exception. But in the ongoing quest to find its 21st head football coach, Duke can buck the trend.

Director of Athletics Joe Alleva-who leads the committee to find Ted Roof's replacement-has the opportunity to hire a minority candidate to lead a team comprised of 42 percent black athletes in a sport that was more than 50-percent black in 2007 in Division I-A.

College football is an outlier in the sporting world, which features increasingly diverse coaching ranks. In 2007, there were six black head coaches in Division I-A college football, roughly five percent of the country's total. In the sport's history, only 22 head coaches have been black.

Almost all sources agree that Duke should hire the most qualified candidate, regardless of skin color. But the question remains: how critically will race factor into that decision?

"You make efforts to try to get [minority head coaches] at certain times, but it's often a function of the pool," said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. "President [Richard] Brodhead has said explicitly that he intends for us to make aggressive searches, particularly in football, and expects that minority candidates will be looked at. But I don't think anyone is particularly satisfied, nor should we be, with the current situation."

Burness is not content with Duke's state, and national organizations like the Black Coaches and Administrators are displeased with searches throughout the country. The problem, they believe, is that coaches of color do not receive enough interviews and simply are not given the chance to be considered for head-coaching positions. As a prominent athletic powerhouse, though, Duke is in a unique position: it could help trigger national change, said eminent civil-rights lawyer Cyrus Mehri, who works to encourage diversity in sport.

"With Duke being as prestigious a place as it is, it really can not only quietly show leadership-which is what it's doing now-but hopefully publicly show leadership," Mehri said.

Continued...

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