Contentious Hire Puts Spotlight on Black Coaches

NEW YORK, New York - For more than two decades, Fitzgerald Hill has fought to have minority and African-American head football coaches hired at predominantly white colleges and universities. In his new book, “Crackback: How College Football Blindsides the Hopes of Black Coaches,” written with the veteran journalist Mark Purdy, Hill, a former head coach at San Jose State, tells about those efforts. He uses “crackback” as a metaphor to describe what often happens to black candidates seeking head coaching jobs at predominantly white universities.

Last week Hill was surprised when Alcorn State, a historically black university in Lorman, Mississippi, announced the hiring of Jay Hopson as its coach. Hopson, 43, became the first white head football coach in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities.

Hill had mixed reactions to the hiring.

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Note:  The writer of this story stated in error the position held by Edward Hill Jr. at Howard University.  Mr. Hill is currently the sports information director at HU.  The Howard athletics director is Louis "Skip" Perkins.