ames Franklin has generated an im-
pressive amount of publicity since
his hiring as Penn State's 16th head
football coach. What has surprised
me is how little attention he is receiving
for being the first black head coach in
the school's 127-year football history
and only the second in the Big Ten since
the 2003 season.
When raising this momentous point
with some of the media that cover Penn
State athletics, the nearly unanimous
reaction has been apathetic. Their con-
sensus response is that it's not news-
worthy because black coaches are more
commonplace today. A few even sug-
gested there was a tinge of racism in the
mere mention of the subject.
I am probably more sensitive about
the magnitude of this issue because of
my in-depth research into Penn State's
black athletes dating back to the
school's first black student, Calvin
Walker, in 1899. My interest started in
the fall of 1996 when I began research-
ing my book, The Penn State Football
Encyclopedia. Before that, I had limited
A footnote?
Hardly.
This was
a milestone
J
Patrick
Mansell
