Many people will not look at a black man re-stitching tennis rackets in a warm-up suit and see an Ivy League head coach.
In fact, he is one of a kind -- the lone black male head coach on Penn's athletic staff.
While increasing the black student population at Penn has been a focus for College Hall administrators for years, Penn's inability to develop a staff that matches the diversity of the student body is certainly glaring.
A striking example of this dilemma is the breakdown of Penn's varsity coaches: There are only two black head coaches out of 29 teams.
While society has become increasingly conscious of the obstacles facing blacks in the workforce, Penn basketball assistant Gil Jackson said that the number of Penn black coaches has not changed much in his 15 years pacing the Palestra sidelines.
Though Penn "had much commitment to diversity that was unnoticed even in times of rigid segregation," according to Ivy Group Commissioner Jeff Orleans, the Quakers match up with the overall bottom-dwelling position of the NCAA.
While college basketball is at a new high of 22.9 percent of head coaching positions being held by African Americans, NCAA sports as a whole are not up to par -- they received a B grade for racial equity in a 2003 report filed by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport and the University of Central Florida's DeVos School of Sports Business Management.
Leagues that scored higher grades were Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and both National Basketball Associations.
Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky chose not to comment.
Both Penn women's track coach Gwen Harris and men's tennis coach Mark Riley agreed that race has never been a subject of conflict in their jobs as team leaders, but that the overall small numbers are something that cannot be pushed under the rug.
When it was mentioned that he was the only black head coach of a Penn men's team, Riley said, "I never even thought of that, but I wish that wasn't true.
"I wish the 'firsts' and 'onlys' could stop and change."
Riley appeared disappointed on two levels -- on the lack of black head coaches, and that our society is divided to the point where we need to count our minority leaders.
"That's an indictment of where we are when we start counting the number of black coaches around," he said. "There has to be more candidates that are qualified than what we have represented."
Harris has not needed to count coaches where she has worked -- she was the lone black female head coach at James Madison for 17 years before she came to West Philadelphia.
"I was in the Shenandoah Valley, in the heart of Southern Virginia," she said. "They know what they want to do and how to do it" in terms of racial policy.
While many may be quick to blame the institution, all three coaches agreed that there are other factors that contribute to this ongoing deficiency.
"There are a very limited number of black female coaches in the pool itself," Harris said. "If you look at what track coaches do, I don't know how many people want our jobs."
Orleans raised the point that many student-athletes opt for more lucrative administrative positions than the often time-consuming and trying job of coach.
"Young people are going to go toward the money because they want to get paid," Harris said.
"Unless you're a basketball coach, what's your pay?"
There are also the unique athletic provisions of the Ivy League, such as the inability to reward players with athletic scholarships, that could move a Division I coach out of his comfort zone.
"People in the profession don't realize that we don't have scholarships," Jackson said. "They can see the task as being insurmountable for them."
While the National Football League has made policies mandating minority interviews for coaching positions, Jackson said such a policy would not work in college sports.
"You can't legislate equality, you can't legislate values," he said. "It looks good on the surface and it may save you some lawsuits, but ultimately people are people."
"The worst thing is to sit in an interview and know you're there just because" you are black, Riley said.
While the process is "slow," all three coaches see progress in the making.
"It's disappointing, but there's progress being made," Riley said. "Looking at the 'firsts' gives hope. ... I hope the things I've done can open up doors for other people and make them feel they can accomplish that."
"You still deal with people who come into a building looking for a tennis coach but look for everyone except the coach because that's not what they think the coach will look like. ... It's just about how you act and how you respond, and then that may take care of that problem forever."
