Milestone in College Sports: Blacks Now Hold Head Coaching Position of All Three Revenue-Generating Sports at the University of Washington

College sports are amateur competition but there is no doubt that there is a huge amount of money involved in college athletics. While there are dozens of sports played at the collegiate level from squash to bowling to water polo, the three major sports that generate revenue for a college or university are football and men’s and women’s basketball.

Now, for the first time, there are African Americans coaching all three major revenue-generating sports at one NCAA Division I university. The University of Washington recently named Tia Jackson as head coach for women’s basketball. She joins Tyrone Willingham, coach of the football team, and Lorenzo Romar, head coach of the men’s basketball program.

Jackson is a graduate of the University of Iowa and later played in the Women’s National Basketball Association. She previously held assistant coaching positions at Virginia Commonwealth University, Stanford University, UCLA, and Duke University. She will receive a base salary of $180,000 with performance incentives that could push her compensation above $300,000.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.