Arlington Texas- Yesterdays 60-54 win in the men’s NCAA championship game was history making for the University Of Connecticut and head coach Kevin Ollie. First, the Huskies are the first seventh seed to win the big game. In doing so, Ollie became the first coach to win the tournament within  his first two years, the 12th head coach to lead his alma mater to the championship and the first black coach to take home the title since coach Tubby Smith’s Kentucky team cut down the nets back in 1998.

The UCONN victory is undoubtedly the highlight of Ollie’s young career. Ollie was a coach who inherited a program that was in trouble with the NCAA-they would be eliminated from the tournament in Ollie’s first year-, was hemorrhaging talent as players transferred to other schools, and had an uncertain future after being exiled from the Big East conference. Ollie, a 13 year NBA veteran could have been a loser before he even held his first practice. However, he persevered, rallied his team, guided them through tough times and stunning in season defeats and ended his first NCAA tournament run with a perfect record and the NCAA men’s championship.

All of the above are testaments to the strengths and character of the man at the helm of one of the nations top sports programs. Kevin Ollie has proven to be a good coach, not a color but a track record of winning and more importantly, the ability to come back from setbacks and losses. So why then is there a decline in black coaches at major division I men’s Basketball programs?

As of 2012 58 percent of all NCAA division one basketball players were African-American, the closes racial demographic (whites) made up only 27 percent and yet, black coaches makeup less than 20% of all division one head coaches. This number is even less if you only count the major division I basketball programs such as Kentucky, Duke and UCLA to name a few.

The current number of black head coaches is at its lowest level since the mid 90’s. This fact does not sit well with the championship winning coach, “It’s definitely a concern” Ollie said in a recent conference call. “it’s definitely something we need to take a long look at and hopefully get more African Americans in this job, in these positions, to run a program.”

One major problem for black head coaches is that to become a head coach you usually must first be an assistant-Ollie was an assistant from 2010 to 2012- and the pool of assistant coaches is thin. This is not proof that there aren’t qualified African-American coaches, but evidence that there may be a shortage in the number of coaches of color getting a chance to stick their foot in the door at all. The less assistant coaches, the less chance that any will make it to the head coaching level.

Racial barriers in the NCAA coaching ranks are nothing new. Mens NCAA football is far less progressive than men’ s basketball with a near total absence of black coaches getting jobs at top schools.

One major factor in the failure of blacks to earn the top jobs could be the influence of the good ole boys club at each school that is the college boosters. A grouping of wealthy alumni and contributors who are usually old, white and come from an era where blacks at the highest levels of any profession were considered inferior. Not fit to be on the sidelines nor in executive positions. Boosters who write very large checks to their university of choice and in return demand a say so in college athletic decisions.

Here’s an example: In January of this year former Louisville’s head coach Charlie Strong was hired to become the very first black head coach in the entire history of the University Of Texas, one of the NCAA’s top football programs. The backlash from one of the schools top financial contributors was immediate and fierce.

During an interview on ESPN’s 1250 in San Antonio just after Strong’s hiring, Red Mccombs: UT booster, co-founder of clear channel communications and former owner of the NBA’s Spurs, Nuggets and the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings lashed out at the university calling the hiring of Strong “a kick in the face”. Presumably to the schools boosters such as himself. Mccombs also said that Strong, a recent bowl championship winning coach at Louisville and by all accounts perfectly qualified to have the Texas job would “make a great position coach, maybe a coordinator ” but “I don’t believe [he belongs at] what should be one of the three most powerful university programs.”

Though most boosters are not bold enough to echo his sentiments in public many across the country share his beliefs even today, and it is this atmosphere-one in which bigoted money speaks louder than merit and fairness-that may have many college athletic directors and presidents, all of whom are beholden to boosters like Mccombs, to be reluctant to allow blacks into the coaching and administrative ranks. Even when those like Kevin Ollie, Shaka Smart and others have proven to be worthy of at least an opportunity.

For now, Kevin Ollie remains one of few black coaches on the division 1 landscape. But, even in the darkness of racial bias there is light. The history of sports has proven time and again that one’s ability to win usually trumps the bigotry and overtime; the demonstration of the ability of one or two to be a successful at the top usually opens the door to many. Jackie Robinson in baseball for instance.

So fear not because change is coming. Either because AD’s, college Presidents, other coaches and top brass will break their silence and start advocating for more diversity. Or, because the track records of those like Kevin Ollie will demand of other college programs that they give more opportunities to coaches of color as a means by which to compete. We shall see in time.