Introduction and Overview
Shell Robinson, while not well known for the most part, is a one that made strides for women of color in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Robinson broke down barriers at TCU when she became one of the first assistant’s the program ever hired, as well as being the first woman of color to be hired on the staff. She would later go on to be the first black woman named head coach of the woman’s basketball program, almost 20 years after she was first hired as an assistant. Even with the rough patches and bumps along the road during her time at TCU, Robinson did something that at the time that might have been seen as absurd to folks at TCU, which was becoming a black female head coach of a Division 1 sports program, at a school that was predominantly white and well established on that foundation.
Notable Aspects
Since its inaugural NCAA championship season in 1981-82, women’s basketball has made strides in the world of sports and society as we know it. Even with all of its accomplishments and ground-breaking moments, women’s basketball still has not received the credit it truly deserves. Men dominate athletics in the United States. In various sports women have had to prove their athletic skill and passion for their sport in order to be perceived as legitimate and even in pursuit of that legitimacy, women flounder among a sea of male athletes. The cultural arena of sports is defined by patriarchal standards, and women who are successful in this arena challenge the typical female gender role. Female athletes who are active, fit, muscular, and competitive portray gender atypical behavior. They’re viewed as traitors of their femininity. This gender atypical behavior can lead to the perception of homosexuality among female athletes. Many female athletes will even avoid association with the feminist label in fear of being stigmatized as a lesbian. That being said, in a world when male athletics stands tall on the totem pole, women have continued to rise in the face of adversity and use their own voice as well as their actions, to promote women’s sports even when sick and twisted individuals try to shun and quiet them. Division I basketball teams had their scholarships reduced from 15 to 14 during the 1992-93 academic year, followed by a reduction to 13 scholarships during the 1993-94 academic year. Under new restructuring regulations at the time, Division I members had to sponsor a minimum of seven sports for men and seven sports for women, an increase from the previous minimum of six. The regulation requires members to provide financial aid representing a minimum of $250,000 each in men and women's sports, not counting football and basketball expenditures. While this may be a break for some schools, it's a pain for others. Two key amendments, however, allowed a school that receives a large amount of Federal aid to provide half of the $250,000 from that aid to meet its scholarship minimum. Another amendment required all forms of institutional aid to be counted toward the minimum. Thirty-three black females made up 11.8 percent of head coaches in Division I women's basketball in 2003-04, according to the most recent NCAA report on race and gender. If numbers from historically black colleges are excluded, there were only 20 black females coaching that season. Black men made up 28 percent of Division I men's basketball coaches during this time as well.
If you look around the country at all the options for young black women who play basketball at major programs and most of the coaches are white — almost 90%. African American women have been at the forefront of women’s college basketball since its inception. Despite that, we don’t get a chance to see that highlighted when it comes to African American women as head coaches. First chances might be considered as important as second chances. At the same time, it remains an arduous task for African American women to become a head coach. There are still certain barriers they must get around to get those positions. Black women in coaching positions are held to higher standards, especially because there are so few opportunities. That is the honest truth. Black coaches know they can reach new heights with how they lead the young women of their programs. After all, many of these women can relate to what it’s like to be a young basketball player in college. The molding of these players rests in the hands of these coaches. Growing the players as people and talent should be priority one, but they must also be able to navigate through muddy waters and achieve great success, as the room for error is thin. The same benefit given to other coaches, as the numbers suggest, aren’t extended to African American women coaches. There are numerous examples of African American women head coaches who are changing how schools view these women in the profession. While this may be true, there is still the thought of making it better.
Correlation
For a woman like Shell, these modern-day trials and tribulations were even worse for her during the 90s. Shell can and should be seen as something of an unsung hero. Were all aware of the landscape at TCU, as well as how one sided the school can be towards the white community. In Shell’s case, the person I found most relatable to her from our in-class readings would be bell hooks. In her writing, "Ain't I a Woman”, she works her way through the history of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties and the racism that has been inherent in the feminist movement from the fight for suffrage in the nineteenth century to the women’s liberation movement of the sixties and seventies. Pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in both the black and the feminist communities, Hooks wasn’t always well-received by her fellow peers. This is exactly what we can imagine Shell Robinson faced during her tenure here at TCU. Her record doesn’t reflect the impact she had during her time. The program was subpar at best, and to ask Shell or anybody for that matter, to revamp and rebuild a program like TCU’s from the ground up in just two or three years, is absolutely absurd. How do we get more women of color in head coaching positions? How can basketball reflect back to young black girls when they look at themselves in the mirror? What do their own hopes for success may look like? Shell Robinson may have laid down the blueprints at the time, and nobody even knew it.
https://repository.tcu.edu/bitstream/handle/116099117/17801/19960312.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
-Jacques Guillot