Talley steps into national spotlight

By Jim Fenton, Enterprise staff writer

EASTON - The Super Bowl matchup of two African-American head coaches earlier this month was hailed as a sign of progress in the NFL.

Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears brought the issue of minority pro football coaches into the spotlight.

While the NFL has made some strides in the hiring of minority head coaches, college football remains another matter.

According to the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics, there were only 16 black head coaches at the 616 NCAA schools in Divs. 1, 2 and 3 last season.

Robert Talley knows all about those numbers since he is an African-American who has been pursuing head coaching jobs with 14 years as an assistant coach on his resume.

"It's frustrating, but you have to keep plugging forward," said Talley. "And when you get an opportunity, I believe you have to make the most of it because now it's an easier sell to other schools."

Talley's wait is over as he has been hired to be the head coach at Stonehill College, becoming the nation's second African-American coach in Div. 2.

After working on staffs at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (1991-95), Colby College (1996) and Dartmouth College (1997-2004), Talley spent the past two years as a special assistant to San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Nolan.

Though life in the NFL was appealing, Talley has dreamed of being a head coach at the college level and was looking for a chance to make that happen.

When Chris Woods resigned at Stonehill to become an assistant at Harvard University last month, Talley became intrigued and made his dream come true by leaving the NFL for a program that hasn't had a winning season since 1996.

Talley, a former All-America defensive back at Boston University, joins Mel Mills of Becker College as the only black head coaches currently at New England schools.

According to a report in the Boston Globe last fall, only four other African-Americans have been head football coaches at New England colleges since 1904 - Matthew Bullock (Massachusetts Agriculture College, 1904), MacDaniel Singleton (Boston State College, 1975-77), Floyd Keith (Rhode Island, 1993-99) and Mark Garrett (Assumption College, 1996-97).

"I believe any time a person of color gets hired in a head coaching position, it's progress," said Talley, who was introduced at a Tuesday morning press conference. "I think the interesting thing about this position is it wasn't about color.

"My race, I think, is a bonus in this whole equation as far as who we might be able to attract because of it, but I don't believe it was a huge factor. One question I asked the search committee was whether Stonehill was ready to have a minority football coach, and without any hesitation, the answer was yes.

"I'm proud to stand here as an African-American football coach, but first and foremost, I'm a football coach."

Talley, a 1991 BU graduate and New York City native, interviewed for head coaching jobs at Northeastern University, Holy Cross and Dartmouth in recent years.

He became part of the NFL's Minority Coaching Fellowship Program, working in training camps with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots and New York Giants.

Talley was doing everything he could to improve as a coach and become as appealing as possible to schools looking for someone to run their football program.

All of the hard work paid off when Talley was hired to work on the 49ers staff, and now he is embarking on a head coaching career he has patiently waited for.

"To me, it's one of those really tough situations," said Talley. "I'm even facing it as I go forward to hire assistant coaches here. I want to hire coaches generally that I'm familiar with.

"A lot of administrators aren't people of color. To me, it's about networking, administrators getting to know a bigger pool of applicants and also taking a chance.

"You see a lot of coaches, white coaches, who get two or three opportunities to be a head coach when you don't' see that for that African-American community."

The Super Bowl meeting between Dungy and Smith, which marked the first time an African-American had ever coached in the NFL's premier game, was a step forward.

"I think both coaches in the Super Bowl approached it the right way," said Talley. "They're football coaches first. They were born African-American."

Talley met with his players Monday morning and was on the phone with 15 possible recruits that night.

He will hire a staff and get ready for the start of spring practice with the season opener at Assumption College on Sept. 8.

Talley knows there are many challenges ahead as he tries to turn the Skyhawks into a winner after 10 seasons without a winning record.

"I'm so excited about this opportunity," he said. "I told my players yesterday it's important that whatever I'm selling, buy in. I'm going to make some bad calls, but if they buy in, that bad call will turn into something good.