Bill would require Oregon universities to interview at least one minority football coach candidate

Rachel Bachman wrote this article for the Oregonian, (at www.oregonlive.com), and I have to admit...I think she hit the nail on the head with this one.

Since this is a blog - I can safely tell you (hopefully without losing you to boredom) that this morning on my way to work I pondered JUST THIS QUESTION...What then, if affirmative action isn't "fair" to qualified minority applicants....then what is the alternative?

And I thought, "How about a LAW that companies must INTERVIEW minority applicants?!" I was Oh, So Proud.....until....

Alas, I don't have an original idea, but it is HOPEFUL, is it not, that Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, drafted JUST THAT measure at the behest of constituent Sam Sachs, a former college football player and minority-rights activist.

I LIKE IT. WHAT DO YOU THINK?


Bill would require Oregon universities to interview at least one minority football coach candidate

by Rachel Bachman, The Oregonian

www.oregonlive.com, rachelbachman@news.oregonian.com

The Oregon Legislature plans to introduce a bill this week that would require universities to interview at least one minority candidate before hiring a head football coach. If it passes, Oregon would become the first state with such a law.
House Bill 3118 is patterned after the NFL's Rooney Rule, which helped transform the league's head coaching ranks after being implemented in 2003.

Oregon's bill aims to diversify hiring in major college football, where seven of 120 head coaches are minorities.

Richard Lapchick, founder and director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics In Sport at University of Central Florida, said the bill could push the NCAA to drop its resistance to enacting a similar rule.

"I think it's very significant and very welcome by people who have been fighting for this for a long time," Lapchick said.

Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, drafted the measure at the behest of constituent Sam Sachs, a former college football player and minority-rights activist.
"It seems to me it only makes sense," Greenlick said. "Because (the Rooney Rule) has had an effect and because I don't think minority coaches have been given a fair shake in Oregon, certainly in football."

Oregon's bill would cover the six state universities with football teams: Oregon, Oregon State, Portland State, Eastern Oregon, Western Oregon and Southern Oregon.
The bill contains an exception for a school "bound by contract to promote a member of the institution's current coaching staff." Call it the Oregon Out: In December, the Ducks promised their head coaching job to offensive coordinator Chip Kelly when Mike Bellotti becomes the school's athletic director.

The bill grew out of Sachs' frustration over the speedy hire of Jerry Glanville in 2007 as Portland State's football coach. Sachs said he has nothing against Glanville but decried the lack of a more inclusive search for such a prominent job.

Ironically, Portland State hired one of the nation's first African American head football coaches: Ron Stratten in 1972. But since he resigned after the 1974 season, most of the state's head football coaches have been white. Neither Oregon nor Oregon State has had a minority head football coach.

Rob Cashell, athletic director at Eastern Oregon, said the bill might help his department.

"I think if qualified minorities knew that they were going to have a possibility to interview, they might take a closer look at schools such as ours -- that Oregon has this law and there's an opportunity there. It might strengthen the pool of candidates."

Sachs, who has a black studies degree from Portland State and teaches about diversity at the Oregon State Police Academy, lobbied administrators and wrote letters to the editor about the need to open head-coach searches. But the former fullback at Western Oregon didn't get much traction.

Sachs said he thought about suing to push the issue. But, he said, "I'm not black and I'm not a coach."

So Sachs approached legislators about writing a bill, using his 2005 experience as an intern in Oregon Sen. Avel Gordly's office.

If passed, the measure could slow down and open up football head-coaching searches, which are often quick and secretive. Sachs said he got friendly receptions, though no endorsements, in meetings with OSU athletic director Bob De Carolis and UO athletic director Pat Kilkenny.

"I've been very surprised and pleased," Sachs said, "at how most people I have reached out to, whether it be athletic directors that I've talked to, or coaches, or legislators, they already seem to mentally be there. And they think, 'Yeah, this is a no-brainer. Of course.' So to me, that's encouraging, and it just reinforces my belief in people."

Unlike the Rooney Rule, which levies fines for teams that don't comply, Oregon's bill includes no penalties.

The ranks of minority coaches in the NBA and men's college basketball, sports with high numbers of African American athletes, have increased to the point where race is rarely discussed in hiring.

The NFL's minority hiring lagged until the 2003 adoption of the rule named for Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and chairman of the league's diversity committee.

Three years later, seven of the league's 32 head coaches were minorities -- 22 percent. In 2007 and 2009, African American head coaches led teams to Super Bowl victories.

Advocacy groups have decried the lack of similar progress in college football, where about 47 percent of players are African American but six percent of the coaches are. In January the New Jersey Legislature introduced a bill urging the NCAA to adopt the Rooney Rule. Oregon's bill would take that a step further and make it state law.
Greenlick said the bill has a good chance of passing.

"I don't see what should stop it," he said. "I mean, who's going to come in and oppose it? All you're asking them to do is when you're hiring a new coach and you're doing interviews, interview at least one minority candidate."

-- Rachel Bachman; rachelbachman@news.oregonian.com