Talk:Shakey Rodriguez

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First Hispanic coach

Jim Larrañaga is part Cuban, though I don't think that was widely known until Miami started spelling his name with a ñ. There may be earlier Hispanic coaches than Larrañaga. Rene Herrerias is in Category:American sportspeople of Mexican descent, although I'm not finding much to support that besides this. Zagalejo^^^ 19:33, 8 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I am fine with any edits to this but did Larranaga ever self-identify as Hispanic before he took the Miami job? I am in Virginia and this was never something he said as an assistant at UVA or head coach at George Mason. He added the tilde to his name when he took the Miami job as well. Rikster2 (talk) 23:14, 8 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if he was particularly vocal about it. George Mason seems to have had no idea. He said that he had used a tilde in his signature for years, although it just looks like a straight line to me, so I don't think the tilde would have caught anyone's eye. There's some more info here and here. Zagalejo^^^ 00:10, 9 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Clearly the source (from 1995) says he was the first. But again, if people want to contextualize the article that is fine. Just don’t delete the source as there is other information in the source that is used in the stub. Rikster2 (talk) 00:20, 9 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I'm fine with leaving the source. This has been an interesting rabbit hole, though. Will Rey, who coached at Loyola Chicago from 1989-1994, was also Cuban. He was born in Havana: [1]. Zagalejo^^^ 00:29, 9 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I will be honest, if Larranaga didn’t self-identify as Hispanic until 2011 when he took the Miami job, I really don’t think he should get “credit” over Rodriguez as the first Hispanic coach. Feels like Larranaga just started emphasizing this for recruiting purposes to be honest. But this isn’t something I am going to obsess over. Rikster2 (talk) 02:28, 9 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think anyone really *knows* who the first Hispanic DI coach was. That would have been quite difficult to determine in 1995. But even today, you can browse through all the coaches on sports-reference.com, and still miss someone who didn't have a typically Spanish-sounding name. "Hispanic" is such a broad concept to begin with.

From what I've seen so far, I think Rene Herrerias has the strongest claim. As a player at San Francisco, he was referred to as "the little Mexican star," and was once selected by Vadal Peterson for a South American tour to have "a Spanish-speaking player" who could "argue with the officials". (These articles are on Newspapers.com. I can give you more specifics, if you're interested.) But for all I know, there was someone earlier than Herrerias. Maybe there was, say, a half-Mexican guy who coached at a Texas school in the 1940s.

I don't mean to sound tendentious. I'm fine with the current wording. I just think this is an interesting thing to research. Zagalejo^^^ 03:57, 9 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]