0

0

0

coach, and his designation of
Steve Fisher as his first assistant
was paramount in that,"
Weidenbach said. "[Frieder] said,
md everybody connected with
the program said that Steve
Fisher is that individual. He is the
first assistant and he is more
involved in the daily coaching
t ,7

activity of the basketball team.
Mike Boyd was identified as that
individual that did an excellent
job in recruiting, he spent a great
deal of time on the road."
Schembechler said: "At the
time, [Fisher] was the first
assistant. I didn't make that
adjustment, he was the number

one assistant. At that time, Mike
was doing most of the recruiting
and was not with the team all the
time."
Yet the title of head assistant
basketball coach didn't exist for
Fisher or Boyd or anyone. Fisher
and Boyd held equal, but
.different responsibilities with the
team. Frieder claims he never
offered a recommendation for
anyone - he says he was
never asked.
"The majority of the
coaching had been done by
Steve Fisher, we knew that,"
Schembechler said. "No
matter what Frieder said, he
never gave Boyd much of an
opportunity to coach; he was
always on the road recruiting.
As a matter of fact, when
Fisher took over and Boyd
became the first assistant, he
was also raised to the highest
paid assistant coach in the
Big Ten conference. Mike
Boyd has nothing to complain
about."
Boyd reiterates that he had
"no control over the
situation," and therefore can
not feel slighted. He stressed
that he held no grudges over
what had happened.
"Bo had his own way on
how he was going to shape
out the situation, and he
did," Boyd said. "He made
his decision, and boom, it was
over with."

After Fisher guided the
Wolverines to the NCAA title, he
earned the promotion to the head
coaching spot. Fisher did coach
the team through every game that
season, whereas Boyd left the
team at times to devote his
attention to recruiting. If Frieder
did not leave, Fisher would most
likely have left Michigan after the
season. He had been mentioned
as a candidate for several other
openings, including the vacancy
at his alma mater, Illinois State.
He was ready to become a head
coach.
But Boyd had head coaching
experience at the collegiate level,
spending a half a year guiding the
Golden Flashes of Kent State as
the team's interim coach. He had
seniority over Fisher, who had
only been at Michigan for seven
years. Boyd is also credited with
being an outstanding recruiter,
bringing Gary Grant, Rumeal
Robinson and Terry Mills to
Michigan. He was also ready to
become a head coach, but he did
not get the job.
"I was disappointed, but it was
a decision made," Boyd said.
"What are you going to do, sit
around and cry about it? I put 10
long years into this University and
I wanted to see this team go on
and try and win a national
championship, which we did. If I
had sat back and complained
about it and caused problems
with those kids... hey, I'm the one

who brought a majority of those
kids here. I felt that wasn't fair to
them."
For 1989-90, Mike Boyd
continued to assist the head coach
at the University of Michigan,
waiting for his chance -
somewhere else.
Some other observers, without
taking anything away from Steve
Fisher, could infer that Boyd had
a legitimate shot a being the
interim coach during the NCAA
tourney. No matter who was at
fault for creating this image of
him, Mike Boyd was a victim of
the recruiter stereotype.
"Not to criticize Steve because
I like Steve, but Mike wasn't
even considered," said Black
Coaches Association President
Rudy Washington. "I think those
are the things society may or may
not be able to accept down the
line. But that's Michigan too, and
Michigan has been tough racially
for a long time."
Boyd is one of several Blacks
who has in recent years been
passed over by the University of
Michigan athletic department.
For some Blacks working in the
athletic department, there are few
opportunities for promotion. For
others, the compensation has not
been comparable to other non-
minorities working in the athletic
department. Whatever the
scenario, the Michigan athletic
department is close to losing
many of its few Black employees.

The Michigan athletic
department is not only behind
other athletic departments in the
number of Black employees in
high-level positions, but it also
trails in developing Blacks for
future jobs in athletics.
Members of the athletic
department want to help place
minorities in low-level positions
and then help them move up in
the department. Yet those Blacks
that Michigan does cultivate for a
future in collegiate athletics
generally go elsewhere to work,
and that trend may not be
changing.
Keenan Delaney is a good
example.
During his five years at
Michigan, Delaney had risen from
the assistant business manager to
the director of Promotions and
Marketing. Delaney was the
highest ranking Black official in
the Michigan athletic department.
Weidenbach said he was "very
high" on Delaney, but Delaney
did not receive a raise from the
athletic department when he took
on his increased responsibilities.
There was never even an offer to
re-evaluate Delaney's pay at his
new position. When the
University of Minnesota asked
Delaney to become an assistant to
the athletic director, Michigan did
little to keep him from leaving.
He left Ann Arbor feeling
disappointed.
"I thought Keenan Delaney
leaving the Michigan program was
a clear case of letting a future
superstar leave a program," said
Tom Seabron, the Michigan
representative to and chair of the
Big Ten Advisory Committee.
"Whatever efforts that could have
been extended or made should
have been offered. Keenan
wanted to be committed. You
don't let people that you bring to
your school and start bringing
along get away. You have to go to
whatever levels you have to go to
keep people like that."
When asked why Delaney did
not get a raise, Schembechler
didn't "recall" Delaney being
promoted.
"If there was any change in his
job description, that occurred
before I took over,"
Schembechler said. "Nothing like
that ever came across my desk
concerning Keenan Delaney."
Carol Hinton is another
example.
Hinton is currently an intern in
the Sports Information Office.
She hoped to impress athletic
department officials enough to
get a full-time job, but said she
was told as she started that "it was
impossible for me to move up."
Hinton has plenty of experience

in athletics, playing semi-pro
basketball, coaching junior high
school teams, and working as an
academic advisor to the Michigan
football team and Eastern
Michigan basketball team. She
has started looking for other jobs.
"I don't think that I would be
able to move up through this
department," Hinton said. "I
imagine I will end up outside of
the University."
When asked if she had seen an
emphasis from the athletic
department on recruiting
minorities to help move up in the
future, Hinton laughed hard.
"Don't make me laugh," she said.
"I want to be perfectly honest
with you, but that was funny. No,
I have not."
"Her laugh is indicative of what
has gone on there," Seabron said.
"It has been a program that has
just run on its own. When you
win, nobody pays attention
sometimes to detail. When you
lose, its time to do some self-
evaluation, but when you win,
you can overcome some
mistakes."
Leaders and the best?
Typically, the Michigan athletic
department is very stable in terms
of personnel movement. The
service of people like Associate
Athletic Directors Don Lund,
Will Perry, and women's athletic
director Phyllis Ocker in the
Michigan department spans over
20 years.
"The upper management level
at Michigan is so entrenched with
people that have been there 20 or
30 years that no one is going to be
able to move up for a while,"
Keenan Delaney said. "You can't
move up until there is a position
created, or a position comes open.
"Don't think that I am naive
enough to say that race or sex
would not ever play into a
decision, because it plays into
decisions. I don't think those are
the main barriers."
University President James
Duderstadt does not involve
himself in the hirings and firings
at the athletic department, unless
it is a major position like football
coach, basketball coach or athletic
director.
"The athletic director reports to
me and in the process of
evauation of the athletic director
and the activities, we do look at
affirmative action issues and so
forth," Duderstadt said. "But its
almost like a dean, in the sense
that I don't oversee the kind of
people the dean of Lu' hires. I
just look at kind of gross
numbers."
Since taking over as President,

Duderstadt has tried to bring the
University and the athletic
department closer together. He
stresses the need for the changes
in the department; without them,
it could hinder the success of his
Michigan Mandate.
"If we are committed to
agendas such as the Michigan
Mandate, and we are committed,
then the most visible elements of
the University should reflect that
commitment," Duderstadt said.
"That means that we've got a lot
of work to do here."
Through his Michigan
Mandate, Duderstadt has
appealed for "diversity" at the
University. But the athletic
department, which is rarely
influenced by the mood of the
University, has made few strides
towards placing more minorities
in its ranks.
"The athletic department is
somewhat different from the
University," Carol Hinton said.
"Athletics at U of M is sort of like
athletics across the country - it's
the old boys network.
"Its not really racist or sexist
[here], its just tradition.
[Tradition] is somewhat
institutionalized here, because
this place is institutionalized
around tradition. I'm not your
traditional athletic administrator."
Duderstadt says he is trying to
make change so that a person like
Hinton would not be unusual in
the department. Asked if the
athletic department reflected his
image of a diverse University, he
replied "of course not. It faces
quite a few challenges. To their
credit, Bo Schembechler and Jack
Weidenbach have recognized this
problem and are committed to
moving the department to where
its coaching staff, and its more
general staff, is much more
diverse and representative of
where the University should be
headed."
According to a Detroit Free
Press study last fall, the Michigan
athletic department leads the Big
Ten in the numbers of minority
employees, but that might be a
poor measure of the situation.
"We look at the goals, we look
at the hiring, but we don't know
what may be happening
internally," said Zaida Giraldo,
the head of the University's
affirmative action office. "All we
look at is the data that comes
through this office. If there are
problems there, the people who
are in the department may be the
best source for it."
The turnover in the Michigan
athletic department during the
late 1980s came faster than at
anytime in the last 20 years.
Michigan hired new football,

Sports Information Department intern
Carol Hinton

The Black Coaches'

Trying
Three years ago at Princeton
University, Michigan assistant
Mike Boyd and four other Black
assistants met to form the Black
Coaches Association. Since its
inception, the number of Black
coaches in basketball jumped.
One of the ecA's founding fathers,
Wade Houston, became the head
coach at Tennessee last year.
Current BCA President and
Drake head basketball coach
Rudy Washington is often called
one of the three most powerful
men in college athletics. After
years of working as an assistant
coach at Iowa, Washington
became the Drake coach two
weeks ago. The feeling of
helplessness from his waiting
period helped motivate the
formation of the BcA.
"When we first got started, it
was just frustration," Washington
said. "What we basically did is ask
ourselves, 'hey look, is it us that
we can't get interviews? Is it our

to make a difference

kids that we always have social
problems? Just what is the
problem?'
"When we first had our
meeting, we were a bunch of
middle aged guys and we said
'what we do, we may not see the
fruits of.' In other words, what we
were doing we for our kids, not
for us."
The SCA began with three
principal objectives: to get
credible interviews for job
opportunities for Blacks in college
athletics, to be accountable for
the well-being of the Black
college athlete, and to raise drug
awareness among all athletes.
The organization has avoided
using pressure to open doors, but
instead has tried to educate.
"Whites are more comfortable

with whites, and when it comes to
social things they don't hire us
because we don't fit in, because
of the basketball recruitment of
players," Washington said. "It is
the social etiquettes of things, the
fund raising, the boosters, those
are the things they'feel most
uncomfortable with. Only
recently, have they started to
open the door in those regards."
Yet the crack in the door is not
just big enough for some Black
coaches to walk through, and
Boyd notes that there is not much
room for failure once inside.
"For every Black coach who
gets a head job and is successful,
the door opens a little wider. The
door is not open yet, and I don't
what anybody says. For every ten
steps we take, we take a step
back."
The SCA wants to prove that
qualified Black candidates are out
there, and that the stereotypes are
inaccurate. The group is now

Association:
trying to position Black work miracles, but there are many
candidates for head coaching jobs. believer in the organizations and
"What we try to do is get more its abilities.
involved in the overall "One of the best moves I made
administration of a basketball was to become a member of (the
program, so we try to learn what BcA)," said Ohio State head coach
the heck is going on," Randy Ayers. "I have certainly
Washington said. "We can't been given a lot of support. Rudy
change our has done a great
perception." job, his efforts
Adds Boyd: "We've have certainly
got 36 or 39 Black made that
coaches now, I think organization a
we've got to do lot more visible.
something about the I think we have
one's who get fired a lot of
and resign. Other credibility with
coaches always the athletic
resurface some place profession
else. In our case, because of
usually when you get. :Rudy's efforts."
fired from the head.
job, that University is Ayers
not going to turn W ashington
around and bring
another Black coach in there."
The BcA may not be able to

On cach
He is the women's track coach th
at theUniversity of Michigan, but rec
on his salary, he can't even afford did
a home-in Ann Arbor. coa
To supplement his income, he sha
holds two other jobs on top of his ovi
coaching duties. ath
James Henry is the only Black no
head coach working in the the
athletic department, but he might the
not hold that distinction for much de
longer. He can't afford to.
At the end of the season, Henry Bu
may be forced by economic alt
necessity to leave Michigan and int
take a high school job. He does pr<
not want to go, but he now has to "M
work two other jobs just to pay his he
bills. The high school job would tho
pay him better. me
"It gets hard when you are at
filing your taxes and I think, I can
go some place and probably th
double what I am making," an
Henry said. "New Haven (MI) Jac
high school has been trying to get
me to come back and coach. They [al
say, 'we'll give-you a counselor tw
position, we'll let you coach and Jac
we'll get you a camp over Sc
summer. All the things I love pr
doing here, and with a significant
raise." P
If Henry leaves, Michigan will Po
have to pay a higher salary to the sa
next coach. To bring a strong T
coach away from another school co
takes money. tw
The problem is that Henry, like ev
most coaches in women's
athletics, has already been given a in
boost. His pay has been increased ha
three times in the last two years Ja
- a 21.8% raise from 1987. There ve
might not be much left to give. at
Until the mid-1980s, Henry and
the other women's coaches H
working in the athletic ot
department could only sign ten aI
month contracts. For one year,
some coaches did clerical work to h<
increase their salaries. Men's re
gymnastics coach Bob Darden b<
was also paid at the 50% rate. w
At the same time, women's va
swimming coach Jim Richardson ha
and women's basketball coaches, M
the only white-male coaches in m

8~~~4 WEKEDA41l1,19

Q

WEEKEND April 13,1990