Sylvester Croom to be inducted into College Football Hall of Fame, honored by Alabama

The Alabama Crimson Tide football program honored the alum and former Mississippi State University head coach Sylvester Croom during the Alabama-Mississippi State game on Friday.

Croom was a standout center at Alabama from 1972-74. He returned to Bryant-Denny Stadium on Oct. 21 to be recognized for selection as part of the 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Class, an honor the National Football Foundation announced earlier this year, the Tuscaloosa News reports. 

Croom, a native of Tuscaloosa, is the 21st UA player in the program’s history to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, according to 24/7 Sports. 

The inductees will also be honored with on-campus salutes at their various colleges this fall, 24/7 Sports reported. Additionally, they will be immortalized at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. 

During his three seasons with the Crimson Tide, Croom helped Alabama win a UPI national title in 1973, according to the News. He earned the title of team captain in 1974 and that same year he received All-American honors. After his stint at Alabama, Croom played one season in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints. His career as a football coach began at Alabama, where he spent a decade serving as an assistant coach under Coach Paul W. “Bear” Bryant and Coach Ray Perkin. 

When Croom pivoted to coaching in the NFL, he spent most of his career as an assistant coach. In 2004, he became the first Black head football coach in the SEC’s history when the Bulldogs tapped him to lead its football program. Three years later, he won SEC coach of the year but the milestone appears to have had a minor impact on the conference. 

Still, Croom recognizes that there’s more work to be done when it comes to diversifying head coaches in the SEC.

“It’s very frustrating. I was the first in the SEC, and you look around now, and nobody really says anything about it,” Croom told ESPN. “Look at how disproportionate it is, the large percentage of players and assistant coaches who are Black. And yet, here we are in the hotbed of college football, and there are no Black head coaches in the SEC anymore.”

 He went on to note that, “It’s not like anybody is asking for any favors. “What we’re asking is for guys to get a legitimate chance and to be elevated to the kinds of positions that they’re going to get those chances.” 

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey agrees with Croom. “We’ve had success in adding diversity in other sports as well as some of our athletic directors’ positions and at the president and chancellor level, but not in the head football coach position recently,” he said, according to ESPN. He added that though policies have been adopted to ensure diverse candidate pools, hiring decisions “are made on the campus level.”

The 2022 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held Dec. 6 during the 64th NFF Annual Awards Dinner in Las Vegas, according to the News.

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