6 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Volume 8 Number 11


The Disappearance of the Black Coach: African-Americans Shut Out of College Basketball


Thompson, Temple’s John Chaney, Villanova’s George Raveling and Cincinnati’s Nolan Richardson.


Raveling, Thompson, Chaney


and Richardson led the Black Coaches Association (B.C.A.). The group, so powerful in the 1980s and ’90s, remains, but it’s a shell of what it used to be.


“In the old days, when they saw


the old B.C.A., they saw a bunch a black folks holding the hammer,” Raveling told the New York Times in April after the NCAA Tournament ended. He said that hammer proved to be extraordinary talent, which included the fact that Patrick Ewing single-handedly turned Georgetown into a destination.


Led by Ewing, the Hoyas won


Above: University of Connecticut basketball coach Kevin Ollie. Photo courtesy of the Washington Informer


BY STACY M. BROWN Just a handful of years after the


tumultuous, racially charged era of the 1960s, Georgetown coach John Thompson peered over his shoulder during a game at McDonough Gym in Northwest. What the coach saw he’d never forget. Neither would many others. “Thompson the [N-word] flop must go,” the racist banner read.


“Today, this generation doesn’t


even know who John Thompson is,” said Brian Ellerbe, a Capitol Heights, Maryland, native and former NCAA Division I men’s basketball coach who worked at several schools including George Washington University in Northwest.


Like many, Ellerbe, 50, laments


the glaring absence of African-Amer- ican coaches in Division I basketball. Ellerbe stopped short of accusing anyone of racism and admits that a black coach today probably wouldn’t have to endure the bigotry faced by the legendary Thompson in the 1970s.


However, when asked whether an


old-boy network might be responsible for the dearth of African-American coaches, Ellerbe said the matter runs much deeper.


“A lot of the hiring practices


are far more sophisticated and convoluted,” he said. “Today, the athletic directors and the presidents hire search firms to find coaches and [black coaches] are not clients of those search firms.”


Ellerbe said athletic directors and


presidents have moved toward search firms as a means to protect themselves if a coach fails. It’s a system that effectively locks out African Americans, he said. “We’re not even getting an interview, a phone call returned or even an email returned,” Ellerbe said.


ESPN reported in May that, of the


25 jobs that have opened this year, 13 have been the result of black coaches being fired or resigning, including Tony Barbee at Auburn; Jason Capel at Appalachian State; Louis Orr at Bowling Green; Clarence Finley at Central Arkansas; Ron Mitchell


at Coppin State; Greg Jackson at Delaware State; Mike Jarvis at Florida Atlantic; Cliff Warren at Jacksonville; Frankie Allen at Maryland-Eastern Shore; Stan Heath at South Florida; Jason James at Tennessee-Martin; Travis Williams at Tennessee State; and James Johnson at Virginia Tech.


Pat Forde, one of Yahoo! Sports’


top basketball writers, said presuming that Historically Black Colleges and Universities such as Coppin State, Delaware State, Maryland-Eastern Shore and Tennessee State fill their openings with minorities, college basketball could well be looking at a net loss in black head coaches next year.


“And then there figures to be


several more black coaches entering the season on the hot seat. Among them: Lorenzo Romar at Washington; Craig Robinson at Oregon State; Oliver Purnell at DePaul; Anthony Grant at Alabama; Frank Haith at Missouri; Mike Anderson at Arkansas; Trent Johnson at Texas Christian University; David Carter at Nevada; and Paul Hewitt at George Mason,” he said.


Forde also noted that if search


firms are simply an extension of college sports’ old-boy network among overwhelmingly white administrators, it stands to reason that most of the rec- ommendations will be to hire white coaches.


An NCAA spokeswoman declined to comment.


Still, the percentage of Afri-


can-American head coaches stands at its lowest level in 20 years. The University of Connecticut’s Kevin Ollie, who coached his team to the national championship earlier this year, also expressed concern over the lack of black men on the bench.


“It’s definitely a concern,” said


Ollie, 41. “It’s definitely something we need to take a long look at, and hopefully we can get more African Americans in these jobs, in these positions, that they can run a program.”


Ollie said challenges facing black


coaches are far more complex than the issues confronted by such pioneers as


the national championship in 1984, and they played for the title in ’82 and in ’85. Richardson won the national championship with star forward Corliss Williamson in 1994, and went back to the Final Four a year later.


“For whatever reason, it’s not


in vogue for the great black athlete to play for a black coach,” said Paul Hewitt, the coach at George Mason.


Health


Lower Vitamin D Levels Linked to Higher Premature Death Rate


BY SCOTT LAFEE Researchers at the University


of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that persons with lower blood levels of vitamin D were twice as likely to die prematurely as people with higher blood levels of vitamin D.


The finding, published in the June


12 issue of American Journal of Public Health, was based on a systematic review of 32 previous studies that included analyses of vitamin D, blood levels and human mortality rates. The specific variant of vitamin D assessed was 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the primary form found in blood.


“Three years ago, the Institute of


Medicine (IOM) concluded that having a too-low blood level of vitamin D was hazardous,” said Cedric Garland, DrPH, professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at UC San Diego and lead author of the study. “This study supports that conclusion, but goes one step further. The 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ ml) blood level cutoff assumed from the IOM report was based solely on the association of low vitamin D with risk of bone disease. This new finding is based on the association of low vitamin D with risk of premature death from all causes, not just bone diseases.”


Garland said the blood level


amount of vitamin D associated with about half of the death rate was 30 ng/ml. He noted that two-thirds of the U.S. population has an estimated


blood vitamin D level below 30 ng/ ml.


“This study should give the


medical community and public substantial reassurance that vitamin D is safe when used in appropriate doses up to 4,000 International Units (IU) per day,” said Heather Hofflich, DO, professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine.


“However, it’s always wise to


consult your physician when changing your intake of vitamin D and to have your blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D checked annually. Daily intakes above 4,000 IU per day may be appropriate for some patients under medical supervision.”


The average age when the blood


was drawn in this study was 55 years; the average length of follow-up was nine years. The study included residents of 14 countries, including the United States, and data from 566,583 participants.


Co-authors include June Kim,


Sharif B. Mohr, Edward D. Gorham and Kenneth Zeng, UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine; Joe Ramsdell, UCSD Department of Medicine; William B. Grant, Sunlight and Nutrition Research Center; Edward L. Giovannucci, Harvard School of Public Health; Leo Baggerly, GrassrootsHealth; and Robert P. Heaney, Creighton University School of Medicine.


This study was funded by the UC


San Diego Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.


July 2014 With approximately 330 head


coaching jobs in Division I basketball, the percentage of African Americans counts fewer than 19 percent. Meanwhile, more than 57 percent of Division I athletes are black and Ellerbe said there should be more coaches of color, individuals who might be able to better relate to young African-American athletes.


“One of the biggest problems is


the parents of the young athletes,” said Ellerbe, a Rutgers University graduate who said he’s now seeking to become an athletic director. “Parents and guardians keep sending their kids to the other guys, not to us. The only time they send their kids to us, the only time they want a black coach involved is when their kid is in trouble and, I’m here to tell you that, the D.C. area is one of the biggest culprits.”


Ellerbe said it’s important that


coaches, administrators, alumni and others continue to shine a spotlight on the lack of African Americans in Division I play.


He said his friend, Stanford


head coach and D.C. native Johnny Dawkins, didn’t get a raise or contract extension after leading his team to this year’s Sweet 16, but every other coach who made it that far received new deals or more money.


“I’m done and out of it and I’m


happy,” Ellerbe said. “But, for the guys who are still in it, something needs to be said. They have to have a voice.”


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