The year 2000 will be looked upon in history books as a season where the CFL made a major breakthrough in the hiring of minorities to Head Coaching and management positions. Way back in 1980, Willie Woods became the CFL's first Black Head Coach with the Toronto Argonauts. He lasted one season and it has taken all the way to the year 2000 for there to be another Black Head Coach. (Danny Barrett in Regina) He was hired by Roy Shivers who himself was the first Black GM for the Birmingham Barracudas in 1995 and the first Black GM of a Canadian based team.
There have also been a couple of notable visible minorities hired in the past few seasons, namely Adam Rita and Joe PaoPao.
But the Toronto Argonauts in the year 2000 decided to go a different route. They decided to hire a non-visible minority to be their Head Coach. None other than the now infamous John "Skippy" Huard.
Here's an explanation given by Minority Rights Champion JI Albrecht ...
Proclaiming himself as a life-long ``champion of minorities,'' Albrecht said he had, in fact, made a minority hiring.
``I do have in John Huard, if you go back into his background, a minority. His grandfather was a Penobscot Indian and mother is French-Canadian,'' said Albrecht, who wrote an unsolicited report to the CFL on the hiring of minorities two years ago.
So hats off to Skippy as he wears the banner for everyone that fits into The Silent Minority.
Another
Production