The more I’ve listened to Marcus Freeman and James Franklin, the more I’ve thought about Tyrone Willingham.
Freeman is the 38-year-old head football coach at Notre Dame, Franklin, 52, is the head coach at Penn State. On Thursday, Freeman and Franklin will make history when they become the first African American head coaches to face each other in a national semifinal game. Whoever wins that game will become the first African American head coach to play for the FBS college football national championship.
Willingham, 71, made history on Dec. 31, 2001, when he became the first African American football head coach in Notre Dame history. He had previously been the head football coach at Stanford and was head coach at Washington after Notre Dame.
Willingham feels that this moment should be recognized and celebrated.
“Because it’s never happened before,” he said by phone from his home in Seattle. “It’s a first, and we should celebrate all firsts as long as they’re positive. It’s an accomplishment for us as African Americans, especially if you know anything about history. When I started coaching, there may have been one African American coach on a staff.
“Notice I said, ‘may have been.’ ”
The career paths of Freeman, Franklin and Willingham represent a compelling generational story of how race, opportunity, progress and winning in big time college football have evolved.
AP Photo/Matthew Hinton
Freeman, Franklin and Willingham represent three different generations of the struggle Black coaches have faced in an effort to level the playing field and open opportunities in college football. It’s an industry that largely runs on Black bodies but has been reluctant to have Black bodies patrol the sidelines as head coaches.
Two of the three coaches are biracial, which also plays a role in their view of the struggle.
Franklin’s mother is white and his father is African American. When Franklin became the head football coach at Vanderbilt, he became the first Black head coach in any sport at the school. He has embraced the significance of Thursday’s moment.
Freeman’s mother is Korean and his father is African American. When the subject of Thursday’s historic moment came up, Freeman made sure to first acknowledge his mother and his Korean roots. He then went on to discuss the importance of Thursday’s game as a Black head coach.
Willingham was born in Kinston, North Carolina, in 1953 to African American parents. His mother ran for county office in Oslo County, North Carolina. “I’m handing out leaflets in front of the voting station. Do you know the Caucasians spit in my hand?” he recalled.
Willingham told the story of being on an All-Star baseball team in Jacksonville. “We went to play — I don’t know whether it was American Legion or All-Star team — but we went to Wilson, North Carolina, to play another team. When you drove into Wilson there was a gigantic billboard, and the billboard said, ‘Welcome to the home of the United Klan.’ ”
This is the life Willingham lived, probably not the life Franklin lived growing up in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, or Freeman experienced growing up in Fairborn, Ohio.
Despite the difference in their ages and experiences, what Freeman, Franklin, and Willingham have in common is that they paid their coaching dues. They did the work — Freeman at the University of Cincinnati, Purdue, Kent State and his alma mater Ohio State University. Before getting the Vanderbilt head coaching job, Franklin coached at Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, James Madison, Washington State, Idaho State, Maryland, the Green Bay Packers Kansas State and Maryland.
Willingham played football at Michigan State which is also where he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant. Unless they worked at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, most African American college football coaches in Willingham’s era were on a deserted island. Big time college coaching was an old boys club that locked out potential Black candidates.
Willingham was fortunate to have other Black coaches on the staff — Jimmy Raye, quarterback on the legendary Michigan State teams, and Sherman Lewis, who had an illustrious career in college and the NFL.
“Michigan State was in many ways, and always has been, ahead of the curve,” Willingham said.
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
From Michigan State, Willingham went to Central Michigan, then North Carolina State, then Rice and finally to Stanford where Denny Green, a pioneer in his own right, was the head coach. Green taught Willingham the importance of mentorship, representation and being intentional about bringing others along.
When Green left Stanford to become the Minnesota Vikings head coach in 1992, he hired Willingham as running backs coach. That turned out to be a significant turning point in his career.
Following the 1994 season, Stanford hired Willingham to be its head football coach despite the fact that he had never been more than a position coach at any level. The Standford athletics director, Ted Leland, and its provost, Condoleezza Rice, were strong advocates for Willingham.
“I’d never been an offensive coordinator, never been a defensive coordinator. So having not occupied those titles, that made the conversation even more difficult,” he said.
It helped that Green had already been head coach at Stanford. He helped clear the forest.
“Denny made a path, so it was okay for a Tyrone Willingham to come along behind him,” Willingham said. “Denny helped pave the way for me.”
In seven seasons as head coach, Willingham led the Cardinal to a 44-36-1 record and four bowl game appearances. His 1999 Cardinal team won Stanford’s first Pacific-10 Conference title in nearly 30 years and appeared in the 2000 Rose Bowl.
Willingham’s Notre Dame experience was intriguing. There was no one pioneer to clear the forest. After Notre Dame fired Bob Davie, the first choice to replace him was George O’Leary, the Georgia Tech coach who was the hot candidate. Willingham had conversations about the job with Kevin White, the Notre Dame athletics director, but O’Leary was the popular choice. O’Leary was forced to resign after discrepancies on his resume came to light.
Willingham was hired although the entire university community was not totally on board.
“I really don’t know, but I probably believe that there was probably opposition to hiring a Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame,” he said.
But hired he was. Former NFL player Dave Duerson was on the Notre Dame board of trustees at that time and advocated for Willingham.
Willingham did well enough in his first season to be named coach of the year by several associations: ESPN/Home Depot College Coach of the Year, Scripps College Coach of the Year, the Black Coaches Association Male Coach of the Year and Coach of the Year by the Maxwell Football Club. But by 2004, Willingham was on shaky ground, the Irish went 6-5 and his contract was ultimately terminated.
When I asked Willingham how he would describe his time at Notre Dame he said, “Another day in America,” and left it at that.
Otto Greule/Getty Images
Did Willingham think the atmosphere has changed in the 20 years since he’s left? Freeman seems to have been fully embraced by the university.
“I sure hope it has,” Willingham said. “I believe that Notre Dame is probably more in tune with success and finding the right person to create success than it is on other issues.”
During his press conference on Saturday, Penn State’s Franklin, when asked about the significance of two coaches of color meeting in the semifinal game, compared this moment to Super Bowl XLI in 2007 when Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith and Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy became the first Black head coaches to face each other in the Super Bowl.
In 2007, Willingham was in his final season as the head coach at the University of Washington, and Franklin was offensive coordinator at Kansas State under Black head coach Ron Prince. Freeman was a student athlete at Ohio State.
Franklin said he thought that moment in 2007 may have been a tipping point for Black head coaches.
“I remember thinking that as a coach, how significant that was in the profession and how significant that was for young coaches coming up in the profession to see those guys in that role,” Franklin said. “I also remember at that time that there was a lot of conversations about will this impact the profession. Will this impact have earned opportunities for guys?”
Has it changed? Will the presence of Freeman and Franklin inspire presidents, boards of trustees and boosters to pursue Black coaches as hotly as they pursue Black players?
“Does this create opportunities for more guys to get in front of athletic directors?” Franklin wondered. “Does this create more opportunities for search firms? I hope so. I think at the end of the day you just want an opportunity and want to be able to earn it through your work and through your actions. We’ll see.”
Willingham was less optimistic when I asked him if he thought Freeman and Franklin represented a tipping point.
“No, I don’t and the reason I don’t is because our overall country seems to want to go back,” he said. “That, to me, is even a greater sadness [because] we’ve made some progress. We’ve seen some things happen. We’ve seen leadership placed in our hands, and yet now, in many cases, they’re trying to strip that back, whether it is with the books they allow you to read or the right to vote. So, that is the tipping point that I’m concerned about.”
The bottom line for Freeman and Franklin as it was for Willingham is success. That is and always has been the great equalizer.
Willingham said that his greatest wish for Freeman and Franklin is that they continue to win.
“I just want them to be successful,” he said. “Because when they’re successful, that opens the door for another African American, and that’s all we want. Because if that opens that door, then maybe it opens a door for my son, or maybe it opens a door for my grandson, and down the road. The opportunity will be there.”
There will be a Black head coach playing for the national championship. There will be a historic moment and a double historic moment if one of them should win the national championship.
For Willingham, this has been an amazing evolution.
In the days leading up to Thursday’s semifinal game, Freeman and Franklin will be asked about their historic meeting. Beyond words, Willingham would like the two coaches to acknowledge the moment by continuing to be great.
“That’s all they need to do,” he said “They keep winning in their programs, keep being the best coaches in the country, and it becomes undeniable. It’s like that storm that comes through, with 140, 150 mile an hour winds: Nothing stands up to it. We’ve been doing that for 400 years. Every time you try to kick us down, kick us out, guess what? Still, we rise.”
That’s a powerful pep talk from a pioneer coach.