And why isn’t anyone asking this question?
By Jon Chang | Special to AsianWeek
Norm Chow, University of Southern California’s assistant football coach and offensive coordinator, is currently interviewing for the head coach position at the University of Utah. Why is this important? Remember all the talk about diversity?
When Bobby Wilson of Michigan State University, one of four African American major college football coaches, was fired earlier this year, an incredible media blitz of mea culpas and hand wringing — from Jim Rome to ESPN — inundated the airwaves. Sports pages and magazines were filled with articles with headlines like “Black Football Coaches Lose Yardage,” “Where Are the Black Football Coaches?” and “It’s Shameful Big-Time College Football Only Has 4 Black Head Coaches.” The issue of “diversity” dominated the headlines whenever ex-coach Bobby Wilson’s name appeared.
I support the need for more African Americans and other minorities as head coaches in college sports. Football players should have equal opportunities to become football coaches and this is an area in which there is obviously a deficit.
At the same time, there has never been a single Asian Pacific American major college basketball or football coach in America. Did any of these sportswriters or activists mention that? No! Did any of them mention the lack of Latino and APA coaches in American sports at all? No! So, all of their laments and hand-wringing about “diversity” ring a little hollow.
Why is having an APA head coach in major college football important? First, a football coach is a leader, educator and role model for the university and the community at large. An APA football coach adds yet another facet to the diamond called America. Finally, with all the clamoring for diversity, the opportunity is here. The response: dead silence. Where are the activists and sportswriters now?
What are Chow’s qualifications? Chow was a first team All-WAC conference offensive guard for the Utah Utes and Honorable Mention All-American in 1967. He later played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL until a knee injury cut his career short. He then went into coaching as an offensive coordinator for Brigham Young University (1973-1999) while continuing his studies and eventually earning a Ph.D. in educational psychology from BYU in 1979.
Even more impressive are his coaching awards and accolades. He was the offensive coordinator for BYU during the reigns of quarterbacks Steve Young, Jim McMahon, Marc Wilson, Gifford Nielsen, Ty Detmer and Robbie Bosco. Of these, three — Young, McMahon and Detmer — won the Davey O’Brien award for college football’s best quarterback. Detmer also won two Heismans while under Chow’s tutelage. Chow was also the offensive coordinator of BYU when they won a national championship in 1984. He was named the National Assistant Coach of the Year in 1999 by the American Football Foundation and in 1993 by Athlon. In 2002, he is a finalist again — as he was in 1996 — for the Frank Broyles Award, which is the nation’s top assistant coach award.
Chow first interviewed for the head coaching job at Utah in 1990. Let’s hope that this round of interviews is genuine and not lip service to the idea of “multiculturalism.” We must go beyond the paradigm of black and white for these discussions to have any true meaning.
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