Color Coded: Ridder Becomes 10th Coach Going From HBCU to White School

Ryan Ridder, who is white, switched from Bethune-Cookman to Tennessee-Martinvis) to became the 10th coach in NCAA Division I history hired directly from a historically black college or university by a predominantly white school at the major-college level. For those woke wizards counting color of noses, there were only two such mentors in the 20th Century. The SWAC and MEAC moved up to the major-college level in 1979-80 and 1980-81, respectively.

Ford and Davis joined Jeff Capel Jr. (North Carolina A&T to Old Dominion after 1993-94 campaign), Rob Chavez (Maryland-Eastern Shore to Portland after 1993-94), Steve Merfeld (Hampton to Evansville after 2001-02), James Green (Mississippi Valley State to Jacksonville State after 2007-08), John Cooper (Tennessee State to Miami of Ohio after 2011-12), Sean Woods (Mississippi Valley State to Morehead State after 2011-12), Anthony Evans (Norfolk State to Florida International after 2012-13), Dana Ford (Tennessee State to Missouri State after 2017-18) and Mike Davis (Texas Southern to Detroit after 2017-18). The first seven bench bosses in this category each served at least five seasons in their new digs but combined for a paltry .441 winning percentage.

No power-conference member ever has gone to a HBCU to hire its head basketball coach. None of the limited progress in this category would have occurred if not for pioneer John McLendon, who was the first African-American mentor hired by a predominantly white university when he coached Cleveland State for three seasons in the late 1960s just prior to the institution moving up to DI. After winning three consecutive NAIA titles with Tennessee State in the late 1950s, McLendon had been the first African-American head coach in professional sports when he was hired in the early 1960s by the George Steinbrenner-owned Cleveland Pipers of the short-lived American Basketball League.