Tyrone Willingham: Notre Dame's first Black football coach: former Stanford leader inherits mantle of the legendary Leahy and Rockne - Sports

Ebony, Sept, 2002 by Glenn Jeffers

AS the first Black head coach of Notre Dame, Tyrone Willingham looks over the field of college football's most famous team, the field of Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy and George Gipp, who coined the phrase, "win one for the Gipper," and says he hasn't done anything yet. He hopes he will do something big one day. And when he does, he will probably look up again and say, "I haven't done anything yet."

Don't except grandstanding from the 48-year-old Willingham, even though there's a lot to grandstand about. As Stanford head coach, he became the first Black coach to go to the Rose Bowl when he took the team to Pasadena in 1999. Having coached the past 25 years on both collegiate and professional football levels, Willingham is one of the most respected coaches in the country, a man known for his fairness, intelligence and unmatched work ethic. Fathers send their sons to Willingham knowing he has shaped men of good character under his leadership. And now, as the new head coach of Notre Dame football, Willingham becomes the first Black to ever hold the prestigious position. And he still says he hasn't done anything.

What about the accolades that followed his historic selection?

"Always depends on who you talk to," he says.

There's work to do, he adds. The golden dome of Notre Dame, home of "Touchdown Jesus," has lost some of its gleam. After firing Bob Davie last December, Notre Dame hired former Georgia Tech coach George O'Leary. O'Leary resigned five days later after officials discovered discrepancies on his resume. There have also been problems with players, including losing a potential starting quarterback to Indiana.

And as only one of four Black head coaches (out of 115) in NCAA Division 1-A football, Willingham, who signed a six-year deal reportedly worth around $1.5 million annually, knows the spotlight is on him. Whether he wants it or not, he will be carrying the banner for Black coaches. All eyes will be on Willingham to see if he can succeed in a high-pressure, big-time football environment. And they don't come much bigger.

"Whether or not Tyrone will say he has to be a model for African-Americans, and the right answer is for him to say, `I'm a football coach and I'm going to do my job,' the cloak is there," says Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association in Indianapolis. "It's inescapable. He's going to be viewed, he's going to be watched and we couldn't have a better beacon in that position."

Willingham doesn't know how to fail, says former NFL coach Dennis Green. "I knew that if I had the chance to be a head coach, I would hire Tyrone Willingham," he says. "[Notre Dame] has high expectations, but theirs won't be as high as his."

No one's expectations of Willingham have ever been higher than his own. As a young man growing up in Jacksonville, N.C., Willingham echoed the same work ethic set by his parents, Nathaniel and Lillian Willingham. Nathaniel was a self-made man who owned rental properties throughout Jacksonville. His mother earned a master's degree from Columbia University, taught elementary school for 31 years and was an influential member of the local school board. A recreational area in Jacksonville, the L.P. Willingham Parkway, is named in her honor.

"I saw my father once, in his 80s, tear down a house, demolish it, with his bare hands," says Jerome Willingham, Tyrone's brother, a Jacksonville attorney and councilman. "That sort of epitomized the hard work that we always saw our father doing--and dreaded because we always worked with him in the summers."

The message that Willingham's parents gave their four children was a simple one: "We are committed to your success. Whatever you want to be, we will support. Whatever school you wish to attend, we will make it happen." The message made an impact on Tyrone's three siblings, all of whom earned advanced college degrees, but Tyrone took the message to mean something more, making an internal commitment to reach for excellence when and where he could. He rode five miles back and forth on his bike everyday under the hot summer sun to attend football practice. And when a car slammed into him on his way to practice one day, he returned to the field a few days later with scrapes and bruises.

He was 12 when he discovered a target for his expectations, Jimmy Raye, then-quarterback for Big Ten conference champs Michigan State, a Black quarterback from Fayetteville, N.C., playing big-time college football. Willingham saw Raye play against the Fighting Irish in 1966, considered among football aficionados as one of the greatest games of all time, ending in a 10-10 tie. In that game, what Willingham saw was a young Black man leading a nationally ranked football team with the same background, community and roots that he had.

"You don't know what significance it holds for you at that time," Willingham says. "But you know you see it and you know it's something fantastic and then, later in life, you realize that moment may have settled somewhere in your subconscious and started to shape interests and desires you might not have known you had."