Notre Dame head coach holding a trophy at the 2022 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

Notre Dame football’s head coach Marcus Freeman makes history

He is the first Black and first Asian head coach to advance to the college football national championship

Notre Dame's head coach Marcus Freeman at the 2022 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

April Visuals / Shutterstock.com

Words by Quin Scott

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman made history last week by winning the college football playoff semifinal, but he’d rather you didn’t talk about it. On Friday, his Fighting Irish defeated Penn State 27-24, thus making him the first Black and first Asian head coach to advance to the college football national championship, set for Jan. 20.

During his postgame interview, Freeman—whose father is Black and mother is from South Korea—acknowledged the feat while also deflecting to the team’s accomplishment. “It is an honor, and I hope all coaches—minorities, Black, Asian, white, it doesn’t matter, great people—continue to get opportunities to lead young men like this,” Freeman said. “But this ain’t about me. This is about us. We’re going to celebrate what we’ve done because it’s so special.”

While some right wing media see Freeman’s comments as a repudiation of focusing on race, there is another interpretation. It seems, from this writer’s perspective, more so that Freeman seeks to place his accomplishment in context. That it is not his alone, but one that was fought for and won by so many others who have helped put Freeman in this position.

The history of Black and Asian representation in coaching in football is not a positive one. A startlingly low number of college football coaches are Black; the numbers are particularly unjustifiable considering about half of all college football players are Black. And the few Asian coaches and players in the sport’s higher ranks face a landscape that doesn’t know what to do with them. When Korean American assistant coach Eugene Chung (the third Asian person to play in the NFL, after Walter Achiu and Arthur Matsu) interviewed for a head coaching position, he was told he was “really not a minority.” At the time, Chung, who had served as an offensive line coach with the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles from 2010-19, said, “It's just when the Asians don't fit the narrative. That's where my stomach churns a little bit," alluding to the NFL’s limited understanding of race outside a Black-and-white binary.

While progress has been too slow for folks of color in coaching, Freeman’s success can provide inspiration for folks to keep pushing. Scott Hicks, athletic director for George Washington High School in Indiana, near Notre Dame, says, “He’s not only inspiring his team but he’s inspiring coaches around the country and young Black men.”

After retiring from the NFL after one season because of an enlarged heart condition, Freeman entered coaching as a graduate assistant, rising through the ranks and taking over at Notre Dame after former coach Brian Kelly’s departure in 2021. After two full seasons of solid but unspectacular play, the Fighting Irish took a major step forward this season, owing largely to Freeman’s steadfast leadership.

Freeman acknowledges the influence he felt from both his parents, in their cultures and characters. In an interview with Notre Dame, he says, “I embraced my Korean background. I did Taekwondo, which is a Korean martial art, growing up. But also, you know, I did sports and embraced my African American side.” And in a piece he wrote for The Player’s Tribune, Freeman emphasizes how he learned from his mother’s selflessness and his father’s discipline.

As Freeman says, it’s not about him, it’s about others. The people who made him, the Notre Dame program winning alongside him, and the countless people watching who he is inspiring each time he takes the field. Notre Dame is an underdog against Ohio State to win the title, but Freeman has overcome steeper odds before.

Published on January 13, 2025

Words by Quin Scott

Quin Scott is a writer, painter, and educator in the Pacific Northwest. They like reading, running, and making jokes with their friends.