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Monday, October 26. 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Washington says schools slow to hire black coaches
By MIKE CONSIDINE
The wheels of change are turning too slowly to suit Kansas women's basketball coach Marian Washington.
Merely increasing the number of black assistant coaches won't reverse the trend, Washington said. She has coached at a predominantly white school for longer than any other black coach.
Thirteen years after the National Collegiate Athletic Association enacted Title IX legislation, which gives equal emphasis to men's and women's sports, there are approximate women’s head basketball coaches in secondary schools. Only five of those coaches are at predominantly white schools.
But Alcorn State coach Shirley Walker said that, in many cases, blacks were given a chance to coach.
Washington, in her 15th season at Kansas, said increased opportunities for blacks and other minorities wouldn't develop naturally.
"People don't think about what's taking place year-in and year-out," Washington said. "We need to stop and reevaluate our priorities."
"Personally speaking, 75 to 80 percent of the time, the opportunities have been there for black coaches." Walker said. "But I think in some institutions, because of location or training, such which is given a chance, there may be obstacles behind it that make the coach uncomfortable."
"A lot of times they're on staff, but they don't get coaching opportunities," she said, adding that black coaches were more involved in recruiting than in other coaching duties.
Walker, who has coached for nine
nurses at predominantly black Alcorn
College and a four-year law degree.
one or two non-black minority coaches. They were assistants, she said.
Successful black coaches like Washington and Iowa basketball coach Vivian Stringer, should be given opportunities in the future. Walker said.
"They've let the world know that black women can coach at that level," Walker said. "I'm sure with the way things are now, there could be more (openings) but people are not ready to take them." I think we have to work up to that. I think a lot of black coaching coaches should be given that opportunity."
T
here are enough good people out there, some of whom happen to be black, who deserve an opportunity to get on these coaching staffs.'
Marian Washington KU women's basketball coach
One barrier to the hiring of blacks might be the low number of black coaching candidates. Washington said black women were being encouraged to get into non-traditional areas such as law and engineering. Washington, who has a master's degree in administration and biodynamics, said some women might want to try coaching later in life.
Washington said she encouraged her athletes who had the necessary attitude and self-discipline to become coaches.
Kansas All-America basketball player Lynette Woodward was an assistant to Washington from 1981 to 1986. Washington said another former player, "Magical" Mary Myers, who currently is working on her
doctorate at KU, would be a good coaching candidate.
Washington said many women players had put their schools on the map with their play, but then had not seen coaching offers from those schools.
Another problem black coaches face is recruiting. Washington said she had experienced some trouble in her early years at Kansas.
"I've been able to get the black and the white players here."
Stringer and Washington are the only blacks on the United States Olympic Committee, which selects women's basketball coaches and players for national and international competition.
"I think my main concern is until you get more blacks involved in coaching at the grass levels level, it will be very difficult to get representation on the committee," Washington said.
"There are enough good people out there," Washington said, "some of whom happen to be black, who have the opportunity to get on these coaching staffs."
Washington said an influx of male coaches in women's basketball recently had taken away some committee positions.
Washington said she had amended her personal goal of coaching the U.S. Navy in 1963.
"I don't feel like that anymore because of the politics involved," she said. "My goals shifted. Now I'm back to the job of doing the best job I can here. If it should open up, it can open up."
Kansas women's basketball coach Marian Washington is one of only five black coaches at predominantly white NCAA Division I schools. Washington said she believes that blacks aren't given enough coaching positions.
Minority coaches say boycott is not the solution
By ELAINE SUNG
Special to the Kansan
Coaches and officials around the Big Eight Conference agree that something needs to be done about minority hiring practices in intercollegiate sports, but they don't think that a boycott as proposed by Dr. Harry Edwards is the way to go about it.
Edwards, sports sociologist at the University of California-Berkley and special assistant to baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, recently announced that he would ask black athletes to boycott college football bowl games and basketball tournament games this year if coaching opportunities for blacks did not increase.
But Edwards said, based on his own studies, that there were only
Neither the Big Eight nor the National Collegiate Athletic Association keep statistics on how many minorities hold coaching positions in football, basketball and non-revenue sports.
three black head football coaches in Division I, to which KU belongs. In the same division, only 28 out of 233 head football coaches had black head football coaches.
Prentice Gautt, who in May 1983 became the first black associate commissioner of the Big Eight, said the conference was representative of conferences in the nation in terms of the number of minority coaches.
Gautt said he was opposed to the boycott proposed by Edwards and that if it was implemented, its sue-
But football continues to be a closed door for minorities. Gault said
He said that the situation in Big Eight basketball improved when Oklahoma State hired Leonard Hamilton as head basketball coach.
Hamilton is the only black head basketball coach in the conference. The Big Eight is without any minority head coaches in football, although all eight schools do have at least one minority assistant coach.
cess would depend on how effectively Edwads organized it.
“Personally I don't think we should use student-athletes to bring pressures to bear on anything, especially in high school. We issue a minority hiring,” Gaunt said.
He said the first step to take to improve the situation was to increase awareness.
Gautt instead suggested other means of increasing the number of minorities in the coaching ranks, as well as raising internships to those qualified.
Gautt said that, last year, a total of 25 jobs were available at the NCAA Division I-A level but that not one minority was hired.
"The awareness issue is the basic structure for making change. Once those who are in significant positions see what is right, they will make the
"the term 'racism' is a negative term," Gautt said, "but I do think that discrimination certainly exists, and I don't think it is of an intentional nature.
effort to get it done. Dialogue is slow and it is going to take time to get those in power to realize there are problems, but out there who can get the job done."
He said schools must go further than just putting a plan on paper. Schools must aggressively seek qualification and train them in internships position
Another factor that affects the selection of a head coach is who the candidate knows. Most schools use a board of chief executive officers to select a head coach, and some head coach. Gaunt said a recommendation from one of the CEOs would greatly improve a minority candidate's chances of getting the job.
"Once a minority gets to the level of getting an interview for the job, it certainly behooves that individual to be interviewed in the trusted circle." Gautt said
And, once a minority is introduced
"It's not necessarily who you but instead who knows you," he said.
to a coaching position, Gautt said,the effort should not stop there.
"Those in power who provide the opportunity must provide the support as well." Gautt said. "A person must have the support of those in the power structure in order to be successful."
One of the problems encountered in the process has to do with salary range. Gaunt said some minorities who were content with their current jobs were not willing to move to a position that offered a much lower salary.
"It becomes impossible to move them up and hire those up who have potential," he said.
KU assistant basketball coach Alvin Gentry said he would particularly like to see more minorities in administrative positions.
"You always feel like more progress can be made," Gentry said. "I think qualified blacks can do apperform and become athletic directors."
coach at a Division 1 school in the future, and he said that he thought the situation with minorities would not deteriorate.
Gentry called the hiring of Hamilton a step in the right direction, but said that society on the whole had not allowed minorities the opportunity to show that they were qualified, even though there were many who were.
Gentry said his goal was to be head
Lucious Selman, defensive line coach at the University of Oklahoma, is strongly opposed to the boycott proposed by Edwards. He, like Gaunt, said athletes should not be used to gain opportunities for minorities since athletes would be the ones who suffered.
Salmon said qualified white coaches should not be uprooted to make way for blacks, but that schools should offer opportunities to minorities already within their programs. He said that minorities should not be forced to look for jobs outside their schools.
Prep coaches say rule hinders blacks
By ROBERT WHITMAN
Staff writer
The NCAA's controversial Proposition 48 is a hindrance to minority high school athletes who want to attend the college of their choice, said Randy Westfahl, football coach at Schlagle High School.
"We've got to educate some people, not keep them on the streets," Westfall said. "The people who were here have been on the streets we've been on."
In order to qualify for a scholarship at an NCAA school, high school seniors must have a 2.0 grade point average on a scale of 4.0, take 14 core courses (at least three years of English, two years of math, two years of social sciences and two years of natural or physical science with a label 'offered' and have either a score of 15 on the ACT test or a combined score of 700 on the verbal and math parts of the SAT test.
Proposition 40 is an NCAA rule that all member institutions must follow when awarding scholarships to their student athletes.
Westfahl, who has seven years experience as football coach at Schlagle, said that while he favored the core course and GPA requirements, the standardized test score requirements discriminated against blacks.
"If you score below a 15 on a test on one day of your life, that's it." he held his nose. Those grades he worked so hard in high school to get mean nothing.
"I've got one kid this year who got a 14 on the ACT as a junior and he has a 3.3 grade point average," he said.
"He's being recruited by 30 (NCAA) schools. He'll probably score over 15 next time."
To try and help the high school athlete, Keith Hannaman, football coach and athletic director at South-West High School in Kansas City, Mo., identifies players he thinks can succeed academically in college.
Westfahl was in charge of football recruiting for Bethel College in Newton, an NAIA school, in 1980-81. He said that because the emphasis on ACT test scores, the NCAA schools will lose players to NAIA and junior athletic programs who, in the long run, will succeed academically in college.
"It's my job to figure out who is eligible and who isn't," he said. "I pull their transcripts and see who is eligible (under Proposition 48) and who is not, and who I need to push on to a junior college.
"One of the really ridiculous things is that they tell the kids that if they have trouble on the ACT test, take the SAT," he said. "They tell them the SAT might be easier. It just shows how meaningless the test scores are."
"I had kids (at Bethel) who scored 23 or 25 on the ACT and flunked out." Westall said "It's a boon to the team." They'll get them and educate them."
Westfahl said one loophole is the SAT test.
Sports Briefs
Men's soccer team drops 2 of 3 games
The Jayhawks lost their first game Saturday to Oklahoma, 3-0, in the double-elimination tournament. They defeated Team Adidas, a men's club team based in Oklahoma City, 2-1, on a penalty kick, but lost to Kansas State 1-0 on a penalty kick.
Kansas was originally scheduled to play Oklahoma in Norman on Saturday and Oklahoma State in Stillwater on Sunday. But those three teams, along with four other teams, played in the Tulsa Tournament as part of the city's Octoberfest celebration, KU coach Glenn Shiffrin said.
The plans of the Kansas men's soccer team changed late last week, but the results this weekend were not good as the team lost two of its three games in the Tulsa Tournament.
"We were incredibly flat, you could see it before the game." Shirttiff said of the Oklahoma game. "We took an easy week of practice to heal some of the injuries we had. The guys just didn't prepare themselves mentally or physically."
Kansas fell behind 2-0 in the first 15 minutes of the game against the Sooners and then gave up a second half goal.
Team Adidas tied the game in the second half and the contest
In the second game against Team Adidas, Kansas scored its only goal when forward Ron Blue scored Bret Chapman in the first half.
went to a penalty kick tie-breaker. Kansas midfielder Alan Neighbors scored in the ninth round and goalie Jon Gregor saved the shot by Team Adidas, giving the victory to Kansas.
The next match for the Jayhawks, now 9-4-2, will be against Central Missouri State at 3 p.m. on Friday at Complex, 23rd and Iowa streets.
The game against K-State also went to a penalty kick tie-breaker after no goals were scored in regulation play. Kansas lost when K-State, which shot first, scored on a three-point by Jayhawks made only two of four.
Rugby Club splits in weekend matches
The Kansas Rugby Club managed a split of its two games this weekend. The Jayhawk club team beat Oranha 36-3. The Kansas varsity lost to the Kansas City Blues 31-14.
In the varsity game, Kansas took a 14-10 lead into halftime but couldn't score in the second half. Senior Paul King said the Jayhawks' problems in the second half were more mental than physical.
"We got up on Kansas City at halftime and thought we were going to be able to coast on in the second half," he said. "They began to wear us down in the third." He tells us on our chances to score."
All three teams in the Kansas Rugby Club will be in action next week. The Jayhawk varsity will play Pittsburgh State. The Kansas
Missouri comeback defeats soccer team
club squad will play Topeka. The Kansas senior reserve team will play Springfield. Mo. Games will begin at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Shenk Complex, 23rd and Iowa Streets.
Missouri scored three second-half goals to rally past the Kansas women's soccer team, 4-2, at Complex, 23rd and Iowa streets.
Kansas forward Leigh Strom put the Jayhawks in the lead with a goal in the first half, but the Tigers tied the game later in the half.
In the second half, Kansas took a 2-1 on a goal by midfielder Kathy Moylan. Missouri scored three goals later in the half.
Kansas now has a 1-3-4 record.
The Jayhawks' next game is against Rockhurst College of Kansas City, Mo., at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Shenk Clinic Complex. The Jayhawks defeated Rockhurst 3-0 on Oct. 10 in Kansas City.
Crew victorious in Midwest Regatta
The open four-man division of the Midwest Fall Regatta was won by the Kansas Crew at Carter Lake, Iowa this weekend.
Kansas didn't place in the top three of the men's lightweight eight-person division, but it took four more games to the men's heaviest weight-men division. The only Kansas women's team to place was the women's eight-
member novice team
Rowing teams from 15 schools participated in the event, which had previously been held in Lincoln, Neb.
Washington University of St.
Louis won every division except the
one won by the Kansas men. S.
Thomas of St. Paul, Minn., also
made a good showing, placing
the men's heavyweight eight
and eight, and placing second and third in the women's lightweight eight.
The members of the Kansas men's open team are David Wakefield. Andy Leonard. Peter Harre. Steve Coxswain was Miss Montalba.
David Zapf, organizer of the regatta and coach of the Creighton University Rowing Team, said Carter Lake provided a longer, wider and calmer racing surface than that in Lincoln.
NFL Football
Houston 77, Atlanta 33
Buffalo 34, Miami 31, OT
Chicago 27, Tampa Bay 26
Pittsburgh 23, Cincinnati 20
Philadelphia 37, Dallas 20
Green Bay 34, Detroit 33
Indianapolis 30, New England 16
Washington 17, N.Y. Jets 16
San Francisco 24, New Orleans 22
N.Y. Giants 30, St. Louis 7
Seattle 35, L.A. Raiders 13
San Diego 42, Kansas City 21
Monday's Games
Rams at Cleveland, 9 p.m.
Denver at Minnesota, 9 p.m.