On a sports column about the low number of minority head coaches in college football that appeared Oct. 23
Dear Editor:
You have a short memory, or perhaps you are too young to have ever heard about Ron Dickerson, our former football coach at Temple who was black and who was an assistant at Penn State before coming to Temple as our head coach.
When Ron Dickerson became the first black coach of a division IA football team in Philadelphia he was the only black coach on the Eastern seaboard and here is what I saw:
1) The black community at Temple did not support him, did not come to watch Temple play
2) The black political leaders did not support him and never came to support our team
3) The black community in Philadelphia did not support him and did not come to games
4) The many home grown outstanding black players from Philadelphia schools did not support our only D1 black coach and did not go to Temple. Instead they went to the big white schools, with white coaches in white areas, like Penn State, Maryland, Syracuse, Ohio State and Michigan, all coached by white guys.
It was sad to see what happened to Ron at Temple and it shows how hard it is for black coaches to make it in football when his own people don’t support them and players who could have stayed local and gone to Temple decided to take the greener pastures and followed the great white way. It’s all about the money. It’s not about helping to foster opportunities for black coaches; they won’t get any support form the black community, especially in Philadelphia and at Temple.
Richard Holland
Temple University
Class of 1984
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