Old problem, new solution? Can programs such as the NCAA's Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males boost the numbers of Black head coaches, athletic directors? - Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars 2002

Black Issues in Higher Education, April 11, 2002 by Pamela Burdman

"It was very strange that when I came to this class of 21 African American males I had never met any one of them before," Collins says. "It means we never have had a platform or convention or any meeting place where we would have come across each other. And I've been in this business 10 years."

DEFINING MOMENTS

For Demetrius Marlowe, an associate athletic director at Michigan State University, those first moments also were defining ones.

"When we walked in there that first day, (NCAA Executive Director) Ced Dempsey walked into the auditorium and you could see it in his face. I don't think there had ever been that many Black men in one place in the NCAA building at one time. It set a tone. It created a spirit."

In various sessions, the participants heard from seasoned athletics administrators, who seemed to reinforce the spirit that had been created.

"It's a very closed-circuit market," says Dr. Vivian Fuller, athletics director at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. "People in athletics have a tendency to recycle each other. Athletics is built on relationships."

Eugene Smith of Arizona State University, who has held three athletic director positions since 1985, drove home a similar point.

"One of the things I tried to impress upon the young men is that it's critical when you meet people, you establish some mechanism to stay in touch with them -- be it e-mail, phone, or just cards that you periodically write them just to keep your name in front of them," Smith says.

"I told them you need to read the Wall Street Journal. You need to read the business journals in your community. If you go to a cocktail reception, 90 percent of the people in that room are going to be business people."

That perspective really stuck, Marlowe says. "They talk about the old boy's network. It's almost the same type of deal. Not that we have a secret society, but it's who you know, who knows what you know. We have some bright, strong and purposeful-minded African American men. And great things can happen when you bring that kind of character together."

Marlowe, 38, has worked in administration for 12 years, primarily in the area of student academic support. After jobs at Notre Dame, Syracuse and the University of Maryland, he was recruited by Clarence Underwood of Michigan State, one of the few Black athletic directors in the NCAA's Division I, to an associate position.

Though he plans to spend several more years at Michigan, Marlowe is sure Underwood will encourage him to move into an athletic director position eventually -- and he thinks his experience within the Institute will help.

MOVING FORWARD

One of the growth areas for African American administrators has been in Marlowe's field, academic support. But often, say NCAA officials, qualified Black administrators get dead-ended into those positions.

While many have chosen that path -- or been recruited into it -- as part of a conscious effort to increase the number of Black male role models guiding athletes to succeed academically, that is no excuse for pigeonholing Blacks into those jobs either, NCAA officials say.