COLLEGE FOOTBALL REPORT: Strong: Wife’s race blocks top job offers
Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong believes race was a reason he hasn’t been offered a head coaching job during his 25 years in college football, the Orlando Sentinel reported Tuesday.
Strong, a 48-year-old black man, shook his head affirmatively when a Sentinel reporter asked him if his interracial marriage was a factor in getting passed over for jobs, including one at a Southern school a few years ago. Strong said he heard that too many times for it to be rumor.
“Everybody always said I didn’t get that job because my wife is white,” Strong said. “If you think about it, a coach is standing up there representing the university. If you’re not strong enough to look through that [interracial marriage], then you have an issue.”
There are seven black coaches at the nation’s 119 major football schools after four were hired in December.
ajc.com
1/7/09
