[Tyrone Willingham\College Football]
Willingham: “When I received your request for comments regarding Black coaches being rehired after being fired, I paused for a moment. I was aware that I was the first but saw it as a disappointing fact.”
Photo: Twitter
Photo: Twitter
The following trivia question still bothers Tyrone Willingham. Who was the first Black coach in major-college football to get a second chance as a head coach after getting fired from a previous college head coaching job?
After 135 years of college football, this didn’t happen until 2004, when the Washington Huskies hired Willingham after his firing at Notre Dame.
Sixteen years later, Willingham, now retired, is one of only four Black head coaches to have been rehired as a non-interim head coach in a Power Five conference after getting fired from a previous college head coaching job.
By contrast, the Southeastern Conference started this season with four white head coaches who are in their second or third head coaching jobs after being fired.
“Thank you for being willing to expose another inequity in the game of football and our society,” Willingham replied in an email to USA TODAY Sports.
“When I received your request for comments regarding Black coaches being rehired after being fired, I paused for a moment. I was aware that I was the first but saw it as a disappointing fact. But more importantly I asked myself, ‘What could I add to the conversation, other than the fact that I was hired by an athletic director who looked past color?’”
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