(December 10, 2007)
“Endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope...” (Romans 5:4) [Amplified Bible]
Mississippi State head football coach Sylvester Croom is one of my new role models. He and I grew up in the Deep South about the same time; but where opportunities came relatively trouble-free for me, Sylvester Croom had to create his opportunities with amazing courage, fortitude and character.
When Mississippi State divested itself of coach Jackie Sherrill in 2003, I told my younger brother Louis, an MSU alum, that the smartest thing State could do was hire the best African-American coach in America. I did not know who he was, but I’m glad the administration in Starkville did. Now, we all do.
Mississippi State did what no other SEC team has been willing to do: hire a Black football coach. It was long overdue, and I could not have been prouder of my favorite college team than when they announced the hiring of Coach Croom.
No one, including Croom, thought it was going to be easy. Becoming the first SEC Black coach in a state struggling to overcome a legacy of racial bigotry, Sylvester Croom knew his biggest struggle would not be racial, but rebuilding a football program in total disarray. Once a team gets into the SEC football cellar, it’s tough to get out. Not only does an SEC coach require being a football genius, he must also have the skills of a Fortune 500 CEO (and the thick hide of a rhinoceros!)
Coach Croom and the Bulldogs won only three games a year in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In the SEC, where football is a religion, patience is not a virtue. The Dawgs managed some surprises by beating Florida and Alabama, but those were offset by embarrassing losses to Maine (a Division II team) and Tulane.
Last season, all the way out here in San Diego, I could hear the chants for Croom’s replacement. So when it became apparent we were going to have another three-win season, I sent Coach Croom an email, letting him know this 50-year-long Bulldog fan from Yazoo City believes he is ‘the man for the job’. “Stay the course, Coach! Better days are just ahead,” I wrote.
Never in my wildest dream did I imagine he would either get or read the email, but I felt better for having sent it. To my amazement, the next day there was a special email in my inbox. It was an email from Coach Croom expressing appreciation for my support. He signed it “Sly”. That he would take the time to personally respond to an email in such fashion proved to me he was and IS the man for the job.
Last week, the Southeastern Conference named “Sly” Croom, (the son of an Alabama preacher, the pioneer African-American college football player and assistant coach at Alabama under Bear Bryant), the “SEC Coach of the Year” after a surprisingly good 7-5 season. That earned the Bulldogs a trip to the Liberty Bowl later this month.
I recall what Coach Croom said when he was first introduced at Starkville; “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." I am so proud of him for his courage, perseverance and character.
From the Quote Garden
“Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.”
~Aristotle
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