USC coach Chow snubbed

Harry Mok
December 16, 2004

USC assistant football coach Norm Chow was passed over for the head coach job at Stanford, a snub for a guy that has groomed a string of star quarterbacks, including Matt Leinart, this year's Heisman Trophy winner.

If there was an industry where Asian Americans are truly invisible, than it's big-time sports, such as college football. Hawaii-native Chow has an incredible coaching record as an offensive guru at Brigham Young University, North Carolina State and USC, which has been the No. 1-ranked college team in the country most of the past two years. Some of the quarterbacks Chow has tutored who have gone on to the NFL include Carson Palmer, Steve Young, Jim McMahon, and most likely, Leinart in the near future.

Chow would seem to be in line for any head coaching job out there, but it hasn't worked out that way. Having not been a head coach before may be hurting his chances, but if there was ever an "old boy's club," it would be big-time college sports, given the paltry number of black coaches.

Plenty of other assistant coaches without head coaching experience have been hired as the top guy, so let's hope Chow gets his opportunity soon.

Contributor: 

Harry Mok

Editor in chief

Editor in Chief Harry Mok wrote about growing up on a Chinese vegetable farm for the second issue of Hyphen and has been a volunteer editor since 2004. As a board member of the San Francisco and New York chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association, Harry has recruited and organized events for student members. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a graduate student instructor in the Asian American Studies Department.

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