Groundbreaking SEC coach Sylvester Croom bemoans league's lack of Black head coaches

Sylvester Croom is a pioneer in the history of the SEC — but he’s hoping for some further advancement from the conference he has so much love for.

To illustrate, Croom made SEC history in 2004, becoming the first African American head coach the conference has seen when he was hired by Mississippi State to lead their program. To say he was qualified would be an understatement, as Croom spent over a decade at Alabama to begin his coaching career before taking his talents to the NFL level before returning to coach in Starkville.

At the time, Croom believed he was opening the flood gates — finding an impressive level of success that included being named SEC Coach of the Year in 2007. However, almost two decades removed from making history, Croom is disappointed to see a startling lack of African American head coaches in the SEC.

“It’s not like anybody is asking for any favors,” said Croom, via Chris Low of ESPN. “What we’re asking is for guys to get a legitimate chance and to be elevated to the kinds of positions that they’re going to get those chances.”

During his career, Croom never put an emphasis on being the first African American head coach in the SEC, famously saying, “I am the first African-American coach in the SEC, but there ain’t but one color that matters here, and that color is maroon,” when he was hired by Mississippi State. Still, the former Bulldogs coach is beginning to feel frustrated that the conference hasn’t changed much over the last two decades.

“It’s very frustrating. I was the first in the SEC, and you look around now, and nobody really says anything about it,” Croom said, via ESPN. “Look at how disproportionate it is, the large percentage of players and assistant coaches who are Black. And yet, here we are in the hotbed of college football, and there are no Black head coaches in the SEC anymore.”

While there have been African American head coaches in the SEC since Croom — notably Kevin Sumlin (Texas A&M) and James Franklin (Vanderbilt) had some impressive success — the conference has remained notably sparse, with no African American head coaches leading programs over the last two seasons.

Continuing, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey shares the same sentiment as Croom, believing the SEC shouldn’t be in the position they are as it pertains to football.

“We’ve had success in adding diversity in other sports as well as some of our athletic directors’ positions and at the president and chancellor level, but not in the head football coach position recently,” Sankey said. “We’ve adopted policies so that we can ensure there are diverse pools, but we don’t, and I don’t, make the hiring decisions. Those are made on the campus level.

“But we shouldn’t be in this circumstance.”

Sylvester Croom is a trail-blazer, and will always have his place in SEC history. Moving forward, it’s evident he’s hoping to see some more talented African American coaches be given the chance he was — to lead a program in the greatest conference in college football.