Muschamp partnering with Frank Martin on McLendon Initiative
When Frank Martin called Will Muschamp this week, he had a proposition for him.
The men's basketball head coach, who already signed on to be an ambassador for the McLendon Minority Initiative designed to provide minorities with opportunities in athletic administration, wanted Muschamp's help.
He wanted Muschamp to help him provide resources and opportunities on as part of the initiative and the Gamecocks' football coach was happy to oblige.
Martin and Muschamp are going 50-50 in terms of support for the initiative, which announced over 40 coaches as ambassadors earlier this week with two of those obviously now being from South Carolina.
Among those are John Calipari and Tommy Amaker, who helped organize this, Mike Krzyzewski, Patrick Ewing, Anthony Grant, Rick Barnes, Tom Izzo, Bob Huggins, Cuonzo Martin, Mike Boynton, Tony Bennett, Herm Edwards and Mick Cronin.
Martin already spoke about his involvement with the initiative earlier this week and Muschamp spoke with GamecockCentral Wednesday to discuss why he wanted to help the cause.
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GC: When Frank Martin called, what made you want to get involved?
WM: “This isn’t an internship, this is a real job and a real opportunity for a minority to have the opportunity to climb the administrative ladder very quickly, and we need more minority administrators. When he described what they were doing and what we needed to do to help that from a money standpoint, I was absolutely excited about that and look forward to seeing how this thing works.”
GC: Why is it important to get more minority candidates in athletic administration?
WM: “Well, the administrators are the ones making the decisions on hiring and they’re making the decisions on the building. You look at our teams; there are more blacks involved than whites. At the end of the day, I don’t disagree with being able to put people in positions where they’re making decisions.”
GC: What's your role in trying to promote this on campus with your players?
WM: “I’m in constant communication with our team. George Wynn is our inclusion and diversity officer here in our building. He keeps me abreast of situations, whether it’s on campus, in our country or in our state, of things to make sure we’re not culturally blind with what’s going on. I think that’s the most important thing. We continue to educate our players.
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Our guys have been on Zoom calls with Leevy Johnson, who worked with Dr. King. We’ve met with pastor Charles Jackson Sr. and Moe Brown. A lot of players say they’re against the system. So I said, ‘Explain the system to me,’ and our guys couldn’t. It’s about educating our guys. Moe got on and did a fantastic job talking to our guys about how the system works and how politics works and your right to vote is your voice. He did a fantastic job explaining that.
We had Emmanuel Acho on a couple weeks ago. He played with me at the University of Texas and does Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. We had some really good conversations as far as those things are concerned.
As a matter of fact, we’re meeting with Chris Singleton, one of the Charleston 9's sons, who’s going to talk to our team. We’re doing that to talk to our guys about loving our neighbor.
To me, it’s all about educating our guys. When you don’t learn your past, you have a hard time improving your future. I was fortunate, and I’ve said it before, but my dad was a history teacher. When we weren’t playing sports, we were talking history. Just growing up, that’s what I was a part of. That’s something he enjoyed and I enjoyed as a youngster listening to.
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Again, I think the McLendon Foundation is an outstanding way to help blacks take positive steps forward. And it has real teeth. It’s not just an internship. It’s a real job and it’s going to be a part of a university that’s going to help in that department.”
GC: It's come about from unfortunate circumstances, but is it encouraging to see progress being made so quickly over the last few months?
WM: “I go back to the 1960s and the progress we’ve made since then is phenomenal. It was refreshing, because I always felt that way, but when Leevy Johnson and Reverend Jackson and even Emmanuel Acho talked they said, ‘Hey, we’ve made tremendous strides. Are we where we want to be? No. But we’ve certainly have improved and still can improve. And we will.’
I think the more attention you bring to those situations the better things will get and the more educated and familiar we become, the better it’s going to get.”
For more information about the McLendon Minority Leadership Initiative, click here. For more on the McLendon Foundation as a whole, visit its website at nacda.com/sports/mclendon.
