Bill Cosby
would have been excellent as the coach -- but John Amos plays the role quite nicely.
shareBill Cosby wouldn't have been caught dead in a Disney movie, let alone one with a concept like this one; he would've been calling it racist all of the time, and no filming would have been done, or at least it would've been disrupted. So Disney was lucky to get John Amos as the coach.
What gets me about this is that Amos would be known for being pissy later about J.J. Evans on the Good Times show, saying how J.J. was a demeaning character for young black men; he obviously didn't find this movie demeaning at all.
Bill Cosby wouldn't have been caught dead in a Disney movie
Um, apparently you don't remember a little movie called "The Devil and Max Devlin":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082263/
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Naaahh!! I prefer John Amos in the role by far!!!
Prostitute: What the *beep* are you doing?
Johnny: I'm gonna kill a bunch of people.
Why would he find it demeaning? The role he plays is that of a black man as head coach of a college athletic program. A small college, to be sure, but a college none the less. I'm pretty sure that in 1973 there weren't many black head coaches and so Disney actually took a very non racist position with casting a black man in the role.
As for Gazenga, he actually seems more knowledgeable than his Western counterparts in many ways, particularly when it comes to making wry comments about the Western lifestyle and pursuit of profits.
I suppose you're referring to casting a white man as the athlete and not a black one but that's not demeaning. Exclusionary, maybe, but not demeaning.
I've also read that this was the first time Disney had a black actor star in a live action movie. If so, it was a groundbreaking role for John Amos.
http://maggieameanderings.com/Archive.htm