New York, NY (December 5, 2003)—Today, the National Urban League applauded the appointment of Sylvester Croom as the first African-American head coach at Mississippi State University and the Southeastern Conference region. In letters to Coach Croom, Mississippi State University president J. Charles Lee and NCAA president Myles Brand citing the appointment as a groundbreaking step, National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial urged the SEC and NCAA to continue the active recruitment and hiring of African-American head coaches in the Division-1A ranks. (Copies of all three letters can be obtained by contacting Max Smith at 212-558-5371 or msmith@nul.org, or clicking on each embedded link.)

Croom will become only the fourth African-American football coach to lead a Division-IA program out of 117 schools, including Karl Dorrell at UCLA, Fitz Hill at San Jose State, Tony Samuel at New Mexico and Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame. Every other BCS conference has had at least one black head coach, but a lack of diversity among major college football head coaches is not exclusive to the SEC

In his letter to Brand Morial wrote, "The League views Mississippi State University\\\'s hiring of Coach Sylvester Croom as an important milestone of which we are tremendously proud. However, the fact that it has taken 71 years for an African American to become the coach of an SEC team speaks volumes about the continuing weight of race and opportunity in our nation."

Excluding the historically black colleges and universities, just 15 out of 547 collegiate head football coaches are African-American. And the lack of black and Latino coaches doesn\\\'t just exist in football.

Of nearly 14,000 head coaching positions, not including historically black colleges and universities, in the NCAA, fewer than 800 are African-American males and fewer than 200 are African-American females.

"Mississippi State\\\'s decision will be viewed by future generations as a turning point in the history of football, the SEC and the state. After decades of obstruction, talent and qualifications trumped exclusion. We, at the League, agree that it is an important first step but it is still only a beginning," said Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League. "The SEC and NCAA must open their doors and actively recruit and hire from among the many talented African-American and minority coaches outside their traditional recruitment network."