UNLV a trailblazer for minority coaches

When UNLV athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy began looking for a new football coach late in 2014, the search process was smooth.

Bishop Gorman High School’s Tony Sanchez was the leading candidate. Really the only candidate.

The search for a men’s basketball coach earlier this year had more twists than a roller coaster, with Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin turning down the job, Chris Beard accepting it only to leave a short time later for Texas Tech, and finally New Mexico State’s Marvin Menzies getting the position in April.

But as different as the searches were for UNLV, they had one important similarity: Both hires are minorities. Sanchez is of Puerto Rican heritage, and Menzies is African-American.

UNLV is one of just five major colleges with minorities in both positions. Texas, with African-Americans Charlie Strong in football and Shaka Smart in basketball, is the only power-conference school with that distinction.

“We look like the city of Las Vegas, and we look like UNLV,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “I’m really, really proud of that.”

According the latest census figures, Latinos make up 30.6 percent of the Clark County population, and African-Americans are at 11.8 percent. UNLV’s website states 57 percent of its undergraduate students identify with a minority group.

UNLV is the only major college with minority head coaches in football and men’s basketball and a female athletic director. Trevor Hayes, a member of the Board of Regents, pointed out the school’s new provost and medical school dean also are women.

“I think it shows that UNLV is at the forefront of what the next generation is going to look like, where there is a place of opportunity for people regardless of race or gender,” Hayes said. “I think we’re definitely ahead of the curve … but I don’t think we set out with that goal. I think it just shows that we look for the best candidates regardless of any other trait, and we are reflective of Las Vegas.”

NATIONAL NUMBERS

According to a Review-Journal analysis of the 128 schools at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, 15 head football coaches are African-Americans (11.7 percent) and two are Asian/Pacific Islanders (1.6 percent). Sanchez is the lone Latino (0.8 percent). (Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez and Virginia Tech’s Justin Feunte, of Spanish heritage, do not identify as Latinos.)

According to the annual NCAA College Sport Racial & Gender Report Card, there were 13 African-American FBS head coaches last season (10.2 percent), and the numbers of Asian/Pacific Island and Latino coaches was a combined three, same as now.

American Football Coaches Association executive director Todd Berry, who was UNLV’s offensive coordinator from 2007 to 2009, said “it’s no longer a surprise” when a minority not only is strongly considered for head coaching job, but is hired for it.

“I think the ideal place to be and what we all aspire to is that there is never a question about it,” Berry said. “The fact that we’re still not quite there shows that we still have some work to do, but I do think the future is looking better and better all the time in relation to that. I’m excited for a lot of minority coaches out there that I know personally who are well-prepared and are getting some of those opportunities now.”

In basketball, the race and gender report showed that in the 2014-15 men’s basketball season, 72 African-American head coaches accounted for 22.3 percent of the total and three Latinos comprised 0.9 percent. Those totals don’t include historically black universities, and the report does not have current numbers.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches compiles its own list that includes all 351 Division I programs. By its count, there are 100 current African-American head coaches. That is two more than last season, but at 28.5 percent, down from 32.9 percent in 2003 when 107 of the 325 Division I schools were overseen by African-American coaches.

“I’m not sure what the right number is, but we know that there are very capable, qualified, prepared coaches that are waiting to become head coaches,” NABC executive director Jim Haney said. “So I think from that standpoint, we do feel that we are heading in the right direction. At the same time, it is what it is — 28½ percent. We have dropped over the past 10-plus years in terms of sheer numbers.

“I like to believe that … men’s basketball has progressed to the point where it’s not about the color of your skin, it’s about your ability, and I feel good about that.”

He said the job has never had more pressure, with half the nation’s Division I programs undergoing turnover every three years.

“Not only are all coaches, including African-Americans, getting jobs, but they’re also losing jobs,” Haney said. “But I don’t think it’s because of the color of their skin. I think it’s all about whether they’re meeting the expectations of the university they represent.”

A DIVERSE PLAYER POOL

Coaching remains a largely white field overseeing a heavily diverse player pool.

Last football season, 53.4 percent of FBS players were African-Americans, 41.4 percent were white, 2.2 percent were Latino and 2.4 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander, according to the racial and gender report. African-Americans represented 55.6 percent of Division I basketball players in the 2014-15 season, and 27 percent were white.

Hayes said diversity among student-athletes showed the importance of creating an open candidate pool for coaching jobs.

“It shows these kids that you can achieve anything,” Hayes said of hiring minority coaches. “It gives them a role model in a position of importance in our community.”

Those who spoke with the Review-Journal about coaching diversity said the key is not pure numbers, but making sure minorities receive fair opportunities to interview for jobs.

“You don’t want to just check off the box that you interviewed a minority coach,” Nevada Regent Cedric Crear said. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword sometimes, but you want to try to find qualified people. Look at Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

Tomlin’s interview blew away Steelers executives in January 2007, after which he was hired as head coach. Tomlin has taken Pittsburgh to two Super Bowls, winning one.

He received that opportunity to interview largely because of the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” named after Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, which requires teams to interview at least one minority for each head coaching opening.

Making such a rule work at the collegiate level, however, is trickier.

“I wouldn’t say a ‘Rooney Rule’ is needed,” said Tyrone Lockhart, CEO of Advocates for Athletic Equity. “Each of the NCAA member institutions has to comply with state laws, regulations and so forth. So something like the ‘Rooney Rule’ would be very, very difficult to institute.”

Lockhart said his organization is instead working with the NCAA, and the NCAA’s board of governors issued a resolution Jan. 19 designed to improve opportunities for minorities.

Haney said the trend of athletic departments using search firms makes it more difficult to ensure potential candidates receive legitimate chances at landing jobs. He said the NABC used to receive inquiries from schools about coaches but no longer gets those calls.

“If the NABC were the ones being contacted, we would have great sensitivity to African-Americans legitimately being interviewed for head coaching positions,” Haney said. “But today there’s somebody else sort of in the middle, and whether they have the same interest in seeing minorities have the opportunity to be a head coach, it’s possible and it may depend from place to place.

“A search firm is in essence going to say, ‘We’re carrying out the wishes of the university.’ So how adamant, how focused is the university in identifying qualified candidates, including African-Americans, for their head coaching position?”

UNLV’S SEARCHES

Kunzer-Murphy did not use a search firm for either of her hires.

“Tony Sanchez, by not having a search firm, was the perfect guy, and it ended up well,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “The basketball search, I felt the same way. I thought we could do it the right way, but as I look back to it, it might not have been so bumpy to have a search firm.”

Both of UNLV’s hires have taken similar approaches to what their hires mean.

“You would hope they would hire you on the merits of your achievement. I think that’s exactly what they’ve done,” Sanchez, who had built a national high school power at Bishop Gorman, said at the time. “At the same time, you need to embrace your heritage and the opportunities that it may present for other people in the future. So it’s an exciting thing for a lot of people.”

“It means everything being an African-American and having the opportunity to lead this program that has never had one (head basketball coach), and I’ve been charged with an assignment to represent my community the right way and to do things the right way,” Menzies said. “I feel like mentoring, developing, teaching these young men what life is all about. Preparing them for the challenges is going to be the deal, and I’ve just got to focus in on that.”

UNLV didn’t hire Sanchez and Menzies because they would boost the school’s coaching diversity. The coaches were hired for what they could do for the program.

“It’s nice to see we do have diversity in sports,” Crear said. “It’s been lacking. You have to take in consideration just a few years ago (2009) when we hired Jim Livengood (for athletic director), we didn’t interview any minorities or any women. When we interviewed Bobby Hauck (for football coach in 2009), we didn’t interview any minorities.

“If you’re trying to find a way to not have a minority, then you’ll find a way. But if you are open-minded and looking for quality people and put everybody on a level playing field, I think you’re going to find there are a lot of minorities qualified to be head coaches and athletic directors.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65