Coaches, administrators, professors and media professionals gathered Tuesday at Kellogg Center for a symposium about minorities in high-ranking positions within the world of sports.

Nine speakers, ranging from businessmen to lawyers to journalists, addressed the more than 50 attendees. The topic of lecture covered everything from affirmative action to networking.

Athletics director Clarence Underwood said he was impressed by the speakers, but hasn’t decided what the symposium will lead to.

“I think in terms of the speakers we had some real experts that came out,” Underwood said. “I thought they were very sincere, did their homework and research and gave an awful lot of facts.

“We need to sit down and think about what we think we have accomplished today, and see what our next step might be in terms of doing this again in a different way.”

Underwood is set to retire from his position June 1. Former MSU hockey head coach Ron Mason will replace him.

One of the issues discussed was trying to increase the number of minority head coaches in the college ranks. MSU’s Bobby Williams is one of only four minority head coaches in NCAA Division I-A football.

Former football head coach George Perles, who spoke at the symposium, said he would like to see colleges copy a common practice of the NFL.

Prior to the regular season, NFL teams bring in minority college coaches to their training camps. The process allows them to become familiar with the interworkings of professional football, Perles said.

“We could do the same thing with high school coaches,” Perles said. “Bring them up for early fall practices in colleges and let the high school coaches get exposed and learn about college football, so some day they might want to move into college football.”

Williams said the more types of individuals aware of the issues discussed Tuesday will help spread the word about the need to diversify coaching ranks.

“It’s great that there was a diverse amount of people,” Williams said. “Hopefully we can get this information out, take more action and be prepared to take another step forward.

“You have to start somewhere and you have to keep it going and I think right now we’re headed in the right direction.”

Williams said Notre Dame’s hiring of Tyrone Willingham as its football head coach was a big step in that direction.

C. Keith Harrison, assistant professor of race relations in sports at the University of Michigan, said he will attempt to take some of these issues back to his students.

“It was nice to see experts in the field, but also it was refreshing to see people like coach (Fitzgerald) Hill (of San Jose State University) that are into the profession at a practical level, but also doing research,” Harrison said.

“I probably would like to get a copy of the whole symposium and use it to show the class the different diversity issues.”

Underwood said the number of people that attended isn’t the most important issue. He said it’s what those people do with the information that is important.

“The exposure which they will take back to their communities will make this a bigger symposium than the numbers reflect,” Underwood said. “I think the people that were here need to keep communicating about the problem at hand.

“I think it’s going to expose the issue further and it’s going to expand the concept.”

Romando J. Dixson can be reached at dixsonro@msu.edu.