His own experiences speak to the presence of racism within the college coaching ranks, which contributed, in part, to his departure from BYU. During a meeting between members of the athletic department and administrators, Chow witnessed firsthand the racism of those in power: "I'm sitting here, this guy's [a new white vice president at the university] standing three feet away from me talking about this, that, and the other. And he says, 'we're going to build this new facility and we got all the Chinamen lined up, ready to go.'" Rightly infuriated, Chow confronted his athletic director, who, in turn, took Chow's complaint to the vice president. The VP defended his own actions by telling the athletic director, "I didn't know Norm was Chinese." Chow left BYU soon after, forced to start over after thirty-two years at the school.