Diversity a Winner in NFL Head Coach Hires; Minorities Gaining Modest Ground in College Ranks

Diverse Issues in Higher Education
by Lois Elfman , February 5, 2010

When the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts take to the field this Sunday for Super Bowl XLIV, there will be what has become a familiar sight on the sidelines: a Black head coach. Jim Caldwell became head coach of the Colts after Tony Dungy, the first Black coach to win a Super Bowl, retired in January 2009.
A year ago, when Mike Tomlin led the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Super Bowl, it seemed to some like a non-issue. Diversity seemed to be an increasing reality in the pro game. On the other hand, college football continued to be under fire for its blatant absence of head coaches of color.
It’s telling that Caldwell, the fourth African-American to lead a team to the Super Bowl, is the only one of the four to have held a head coaching job in the college ranks given that the odds of a minority becoming a head NFL coach over the past several years have been greater than attaining a Division I-A head football coaching position. Caldwell, the first African-American head football coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference, led the Wake Forest University team from 1993 to 2000. Each of the four – Caldwell, Dungy, Tomlin, and Lovie Smith – worked as assistant coaches for college teams early on in their careers.

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