Breaking News: Hillman to Name Former Football, Baseball Coach Walter Oaks to Athletic Director

In a deal that is still being finalized (and thus has not been made public), sources from Hillman Town who are familiar with the contract negotiations on the ground have informed me that Chancellor Wayne and former Former Baseball and Football Coach Walter Oates are in the final stages of solidifying Oates’ return to Hillman as the Athletic Director. 

Speaking under the condition anonymity, the source have seen the details of their agreement which include:

·     Four year, $800,000 total compensation that includes $150,000 base salary and $50,000 a year home, car, and travel allowance.

·     Non-Voting Member-at-large to the Hillman Board of Trustees

·     Answers directly to Chancellor Wayne

·     Teaching position as a Physical Education instructor in the W.E.B. DuBois School of Education

·     Relocation expenses

·     Lifetime membership of the Hillman National Alumni Association

Coach Walter Oates: A Hillman Legend

Coach Walter Oates is to Hillman what Eddie Robinson is to Grambling and Jake Gaither is to FAMU. For those of you who do not follow HBCU sports, the reference probably doesn’t hold much weight to you. For the rest of us, however, it still may not do justice to just how much Coach Oates means to the Hillman Nation.  Serving as football coach, baseball coach, dorm director, and briefly the dean of students, Walter Oates has been a popular Hillmanite since he first began coaching Hillman’s Baseball team in 1980. Oates became the First coach in college football history to take two different teams across two different sports to championship games in the same year in 1986– winning the Black Football College Championship that year. (Hillman suffered a heartbreaking loss in Black College World Series to Conference Rival FAMU 7-6).

Oates left Hillman in 1990 and accepted the position as Executive Director of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center in Philadelphia.   Oates returned to HBCU sports in 1996 when he accepted the position as assistant athletic director at Mission College. In Atlanta. Oates was instrumental in organizing and coordinating the house assignments of over 2,000 international athletes for the Olympic games that same year as Mission, Truth and Atlanta A&T (collectively known as “The Black U”) were selected to house the participants.  Oates returned to Hillman in 2000 briefly as the Dean of Students before returning to Mission College in 2002 as the Athletic Director. In 2005, the Governor of Georgia appointed Oates the intercollegiate Director of Sports and Students Athletes of the collective college campuses of Mission College, Atlanta A&T, and Truth University (Black U) to sort out the school’s mounting NCAA violations. Oates faced a firestorm of criticism from the alumni of all three campuses when he suspended the entire Atlanta A&T and Truth U football teams for the 2004 season citing “gross academic underperformance.” The move prompted the university to step up its fundraising efforts, raising enough money to fund a 24-hour tutoring lab and homework help facility later named in his honor.  Atlanta A&T and Truth garnered back to back 10 win seasons for the first time in their school’s history. The governor dissolved the position in 2010 after the state found that The BlackU was in full compliance with state and federal regulations.

Oates is the first coach in Black college football history to amass 200 wins across two different sports.  He also holds the record for the longest consecutive win streak of any coach, winning 22 baseball games and 10 football games in a row during the same season.  In 2016, Wiley College honored him by renaming their fieldhouse the Walter Oates Athletic Training Facility. Oates also has a building name in his honor on the campus of Atlanta A&T as well. He has taken 10 different teams to the Black college championship game. Black Sports Talk named him the most influential college coach of the past 25 years. ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and HBCU Digest have all honored Oates for his contributions to the college athletic world.

Oates returned to the football coaching world in 2011 when he accepted the position as head football coach and athletic director of Wiley College. Wiley amassed an unprecedented 35- 0 record before losing in the final game 2013 season to an old foe: FAMU. 

Why Coach Oates Is “The One”

We may be getting ahead of ourselves, but if Chancellor Wayne appoints Oates as the next Athletic Director, it may be a sign that he is looking to stack his administrative vacancies with those familiar with the culture of Hillman. Normally, I do not support the appointment of old, retired, and former employees of HBCUS into positions at their former school. For years, I feel that HBCUs have passed over top notch talent in favor of regurgitated leadership. Walter Oates however, is different. Despite the fact that Oates knows what it takes to turn a football program into a powerhouse, Oates would be bringing something to the Hillman Athletic department that it hasn’t seen since early 90’s: experience. While much blame can be passed around for Hillman’s current condition (A fair share of blame belongs to Dr. Davenport). Hillman’s current athletic woes can be traced back to years of financial mismanagement, careless nepotism, reckless hires, and sagging alumni support. Walter Oates has experience in the two places where it matters most: student athletes and the community. Coach Oates understands that academics are a priority over game days and has not been shy about that fact: In fact, he was widely regarded as on of the strictest football coaches in the country during his Hillman days as he required his athletes to maintain a 3.0 average while the school and NCAA only required a 2.0. Running a community center, working a dorm director, interacting with students throughout his career gives him a fresh perspective on what face students today – so often, presidents hire administrators that have absolutely no clue of how to relate to the college student – let alone the HBCU college student. Walter Oates gets it.  

Check back for more updates as this story develops.