HOOVER, Ala. — While praising the league’s commitment to having minority coaches in its premier sport of college football, Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive announced Tuesday former Mississippi State University football coach Sylvester Croom will be the subject of an ESPN/SEC Network documentary in the league’s “Storied” series.
Croom became the first black head football coach in the league when the Bulldogs hired him on Dec. 1, 2003.
“It was a moment in time that I will always remember as one of the most significant things that has happened during my tenure and that could happen during my tenure,” Slive said during his speech to the media room at the 2012 SEC football media days Tuesday.
In five years at MSU, Croom compiled a record of 21-38, with one winning season and a Liberty Bowl victory.
Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, noting that the hire was in Mississippi, a state often regarded as having the poorest civil rights record, said that “for Mississippi State to place the fortunes of its team in black hands is more than welcome, however long it has taken.”
As an indirect result of Croom’s hire, it has paved the way for the SEC to currently have three black head coaches: Vanderbilt University’s James Franklin, University of Kentucky’s Joker Phillips and Texas A&M University’s Kevin Sumlin.
Croom resigned under pressure in 2008 and returned to the National Football League to coach running backs with the St. Louis Rams. He is currently on staff with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“10 years ago the story was that no minority served as a head football coach in the history of the Southeastern Conference,” Slive said Tuesday, referencing the year he took over as leader of the SEC. “I am very grateful that the hiring of minority coaches in the Southeastern Conference is no longer a story — it is simply part of who we are.”
Slive’s speech lauded hero-worship of athletic figures in college athletics
In his speech during opening day at the 2012 SEC football media days, Slive strongly discouraged any university athletic program allowing a singular figure to operate with carte blanche over a program in any manner.
Slive said Tuesday a recent report from a former FBI agent criticizing Penn State University’s handling of sexual abuse allegations and eventual charges of former football coach Jerry Sandusky should serve as a wake-up call to athletic programs at the influence one individual can possibly be allowed to have at any time.
“Last week’s headlines remind us that we must be ever vigilant on all issues of integrity and that our primary mission is to educate and protect young people,” Slive said. “No one program, no one person, no matter how popular, no matter how successful, can be allowed to derail the soul of an institution.”
By not specifically referring to the names of the late Joe Paterno, Sandusky or Penn State at all, Slive could’ve also be lumping the off-the-field situation at the University of Arkansas that resulted in the eventual firing of head football coach Bobby Petrino. Petrino failed to disclose his sexual relationship with football staffer Jessica Dorrell and withholding other information, including that he once had given her $20,000 for a car.
“We must maintain an honest and open dialogue across all levels of university administration,” Slive said. “There must be an effective system of checks and balances within the administrative structure to protect all who come in contact with it.”
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