How Isaac Brown is inspiring as first Black basketball head coach at Wichita State
History was made in Wichita State’s season opener on Wednesday when interim head coach Isaac Brown became the first Black man to coach the Shockers men’s basketball team in the program’s 115-year history.
Brown, WSU interim head coach for this season following Gregg Marshall’s resignation on Nov. 17, also makes Kansas history as the first Black man to start a season as a Division I head coach for men’s basketball at one of the state’s three prominent Division I universities.
Wichita State won in Brown’s debut, an 85-80 victory over Oral Roberts at Koch Arena.
“When I heard that, I was honored and flattered,” Brown said. “That’s really something special and I’m very appreciative of that. But the first thing I thought about is it ain’t really about me. It’s about those kids, man.”
While Brown didn’t want the spotlight to be on him, there’s no denying the significance of him being the first Black head coach in charge of an illustrious program like Wichita State.
Brown was a lifelong assistant coach, including the last 18 years at the Division I level, before becoming a head coach for the first time at age 51. His journey should be inspirational to all basketball coaches, but particularly to Black coaches at all levels around Kansas.
He is a trailblazer.
“It makes me feel like I can do anything,” said Wichita Southeast boys basketball coach Joe Mitchell, who is Black. “Impossible is nothing. I really do believe this will open up more doors for other Black coaches out here trying to get over that hump.”
“When you look around our state, from the middle school to high school to college ranks, there’s not too many times you get to see a Black male in this position,” said Cornelius Edwards, a 28-year-old Black assistant coach at Lawrence Free State. “To see (Brown) get this chance, it gives me the hope and the inspiration that with hard work and dedication and going through the grind, anything is really possible. As long as you work hard, you can achieve your dreams.”
Brown’s hire is also important because the number of Black head coaches in Division I is dwindling. According to a March 2020 report by NBC Sports, there were only 103 Black head coaches at the Division I level — less than a third (29.2%) of 353 total programs.
For perspective, nearly 80% of scholarship players at major-conference schools during the 2019-20 season were Black, according to a study done by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“With the way that it’s played out, with coaching being so overwhelmingly white, it makes it impossible to believe (equality in hiring) is actually true,” said national sports journalist Bomani Jones, who hosts a show called Highly Questionable on ESPN. “Unless you believe there’s some level of inferiority about Black people, because that’s the only way those numbers could be the way that they are. So having your sport at least try to reflect the values that sports purport to represent, I think, is very important.
“I would say it’s good for the state of Kansas and Wichita State to, rather than being indirectly related to this kind of progress, to put themselves forth to do a bit more themselves.”
WSU athletic director Darron Boatright said he gave no consideration to the fact that Brown would be the program’s first Black head coach. He just thought Brown, the longest-tenured assistant coach at WSU, was the best option for the team this season after Marshall resigned less than two weeks before the team’s first scheduled game amid an investigation into abuse allegations.
“I just evaluated his ability and I was very comfortable elevating him to head coach,” Boatright said. “Isaac deserves this chance, and if it’s a historic mark, then it’s well-earned and we’re happy to have him lead our program.”
Taking over a team less than three weeks before the start of the season was always going to be difficult, but this particular year is even more challenging. On top of trying to block out the outside noise surrounding the Marshall investigation, WSU had to try to transition seven new players onto the team and saw its practices constantly interrupted due to positive COVID-19 cases and subsequent requisite quarantines.
WSU played its first game Wednesday with just eight players and will be undermanned against Missouri for Sunday’s 1 p.m. game at Koch Arena, which will be broadcast on ESPN2. This season’s schedule is likely the most difficult in WSU history, with 20 of 24 games coming against AAC competition and marquee non-conference matchups against Missouri, Oklahoma State and Ole Miss.
From a national viewpoint, Jones said that while it’s important Brown has been given the interim job, his concern is that this situation fits the mold of something he’s seen all too often.
“It often feels like when Black coaches do get jobs, it’s clean-up jobs or it comes on the heels of a scandal like the one that they had there,” Jones said. “I hope, for Wichita State’s sake, there’s enough distance between Marshall and Brown in order for it to work for the players. And for Brown, I hope this is not a situation where they’re going to him because they think, ‘This is going to be a long road ahead so let’s let him deal with the hard stuff.’”
“It’s important that he gets the interim tag, but more important than that it’s important he is treated fairly as he does this job. We all know it’s not going to be easy, so the real mark of progress is not simply the man gets the job, but he gets afforded all of the patience that a white man would be afforded under the same set of circumstances.”
At the high school level, Mitchell said he can relate to Brown’s circumstances with his own at Wichita Southeast.
In the fall of 2018, Mitchell took over the Southeast program on an interim basis when coach Melvin Herring resigned less than a month before the start of the season. Mitchell excelled, leading the Golden Buffaloes to a 21-4 record and third-place finish at the Class 6A state tournament.
It wasn’t until late in the season that the “interim” tag was removed.
“We were undefeated at the time and I still feel like I was trying to secure the job,” Mitchell said. “Honestly, it can be difficult. I feel like it can take a toll competing for a position when you’re in the position. I felt like I had the resume and the credentials to be the head coach, and instead of being given the job, I was interim, which I had no problem with because I like to earn stuff.
“I don’t want handouts or anything like that. I wanted to earn it, and that led me to where I am today and made me even more proud of where I’m at.”
Progress in hiring Black head coaches at the Division I level has been slow — the American is the only major college basketball conference with a majority of non-white head coaches. Brown is the seventh non-white head coach among the conference’s 11 teams, joining Kelvin Sampson (Houston), Johnny Dawkins (Central Florida), Frank Haith (Tulsa), Ron Hunter (Tulane), Penny Hardaway (Memphis) and Aaron McKie (Temple).
Even if Brown isn’t hired full-time by WSU at the end of the season, his time as head coach for this season will be monumental.
Dawkins, the Central Florida coach, hopes that one day Brown’s story won’t be viewed as unique.
“Any time someone is the first for something, it takes on a certain relevance,” Dawkins said. “But we’re still waiting for the day and time where we don’t have to look at this as something that’s amazing.
“Hopefully, as we move forward, this can become the norm. We’re not there yet, so I’m happy for Isaac and I think he’ll do a terrific job. Our league has some of the best coaches in the country, no matter the color of their skin. It just so happens that we’re all African-American coaches.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 8:29 AM.
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