Hoyte added that these successes make Harvard'sfailure to attract minority coaches all the moreembarrassing.

"There's no question [the coaching pool] needsto be more diverse," Hoyte says.

Background

Ironically, Harvard has throughout its historyled its Ivy League fellows in allowing minoritiesto participate in athletics.

In 1892, William Henry Lewis, a Law Schoolstudent, was the first black athlete to be namedto the All-America team.

In 1903, the Crimson baseball team ralliedbehind shortstop William Clarence Matthews,revising its schedule when Southern universitiesrefused to compete against a squad fielding ablack player.

And in recent years, Harvard has maintained itsrole as pioneer, making Tom "Satch" Sanders thefirst black head coach in the Ivies when he wasnamed men's basketball coach in 1973.

But leaving aside the value of diversity forits own sake, Harvard's current lag in minorityhiring has potentially harmful consequences forits athletic programs.

Recruiting of minority athletes may suffer fromHarvard's lack of minority staff.

"It is something which at that stage of life isvery important," says Kenneth Shropshire, aprofessor at the University of Pennsylvania'sWharton school of business and author of Blackand White: Race and Sports in America.

Shropshire said when he played college footballat Stanford, he was recruited by a black coach,but arrived on campus to find that the coach hadleft. He and other black players went to thecoaching staff and asked for another black coachto be hired.

"The role of [minority coaches] is to create asense of comfortability, to send the message, 'Ireally do belong,' to minority athletes," saysCharles Whitcomb of San Jose State University, whois chair of the NCAA's Minorities Opportunitiesand Interests Committee.

Not all of Harvard's coaches are certain thatminority staff means minority recruits. Murphy,for one, cites his own success in attractingminority players despite having the Ivy's onlyall-white staff.

"Four years ago we had only two minorityathletes, now we have 19 [on the football team],so I think we're doing fine already and we'vealways done fine," Murphy said.

But Johnson, Harvard's senior black coach andrecruiting coordinator for the men's track team,agrees that especially at Harvard, recruitingminorities without minority staff poses achallenge.