Less than 20 years after Maryland introduced the first black head basketball coach in ACC history, the conference has moved to the national forefront in the diversity of its basketball coaches.
With the ACC expanding to include Boston College and the hiring of Dave Leitao at Virginia, six of the 12 conference teams are now headed by black coaches.
"It's just an acknowledgement that color is not a factor," Boston College head coach Al Skinner said. "You're looking at some quality individuals that have had a lot of success, and they are just some very fine basketball coaches that happen to be black. But it is again an indication of the recognition of their talents."
Along with Skinner and Leitao, Florida State's Leonard Hamilton, Clemson's Oliver Purnell, Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt and Miami's Frank Haith represent the largest number of black coaches in any major conference. The ACC's percentage is also the highest among the six major conferences, with the Pacific-10 having the second-highest ratio at four out of 10.
The ACC's increasing diversity is part of a similar national trend. The percentage of black men's basketball head coaches in Division I has consistently risen over the last 10 years and currently stands at 23 percent. Black Coaches Association Executive Director Floyd Keith said he is pleased with the progress, but wants to see the percentage become a better reflection of student-athlete participation. Currently 60 percent of Division I men's basketball players are black.
"The schools and athletic directors are giving people opportunities regardless of race, creed or color," Hamilton said. "And maybe because it's in the ACC, it will create more opportunities for deserving people regardless of who they are."
The increase in diversity of men's basketball head coaches both in the ACC and across the nation stands in stark contrast to that of college football. This season, only three of 117 Division I-A head coaches were black, and Jim Caldwell, who coached at Wake Forest from 1993 to 2000, is still the only African-American coach to have led an ACC program.
Like football, women's basketball has been slow to hire blacks as head coaches. Last season less than eight percent of head coaches were black nationwide, and no ACC team is led by an African-American coach.
The progress in coaching diversity in men's basketball has been a recent development. At this time just four years ago, only two of the nine ACC coaches were minorities, and of the current group, only Hewitt has been a head coach in the ACC for more than five seasons. Five of the last seven head coaches hired by league schools have been black. Keith said one reason for the progress is the increased acceptance of a black head coach.
"Now with a men's basketball coach, it's like the black quarterback thing-no one talks about it anymore," Keith said. "We don't even have a conversation when someone new gets hired."
Such common approval has come about in part from the success of pioneers such as John Thompson at Georgetown and John Chaney at Temple, Skinner said. Thompson became the first black coach to win the National Championship when he led Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas to the title in 1984. Skinner also credited the BCA for its insistence on keeping the issue of equality in hiring in the national spotlight.
"It has been a vehicle that has been able to speak out for opportunities and equity and most importantly has been able to be an objective voice on a subject that's often subjective," Keith said. "We have been able to just deliver facts, and we have been clear with what the issues have been."
Many of the new coaches have inherited programs with little recent success. Miami, Florida State, Virginia and Clemson averaged just more than four conference wins in the respective seasons immediately preceding their current coaches' arrival.
"It's always important to give guys time, but today it's pretty hard to give guys time because everyone wants to win early," Keith said. "The climate of sports has changed, in part because the number of opportunities is greater. I mean with 65 teams in the Tournament, the attitude is you better get to the Dance sometime soon."
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