ARNETT W. MUMFORD

Mumford’s teams produced more than 40 All-Americans. In 1960 it was also estimated that “more than half of Louisiana’s high school coaches are former Jaguars.”

By the 1939 season Mumford’s football program was so successful that it had begun turning heads even within the local white community; as a sign of the changing times, Southern had begun to advertise ac- commodations for white patrons on its new stadium grounds. When the stadium was completed in 1940, it included a 150-seat section for white patrons. One of the more noteworthy white fans was Ellis A. “Little Fuzzy” Brown who, along with his twin brother James (“Big Fuzzy”), coached Istrouma High School into the most successful dynasty in Louisiana’s highest classification of prep football. Likewise, white coaches such as Frank Broyles and Bear Bryant were known to have visited Mumford during his coaching career to discuss football strategy. Mumford’s 1948 team also further bridged the racial gap by participating in the first game between an HBCU and a predominantly white institution, at the Fruit Bowl; Southern defeated San Francisco State 30–0, and finished the year at 12–0—a single-season won–loss record that has yet to be surpassed by any HBCU team.

As evidence of the respect that he retained within the HBCU coaching community, among the pallbearers and honorary pallbearers serving at his funeral were past, present, and future college football head coaches Alex Durley, T. B. Ellis, Jake Gaither, Zip Gayles, Howard Gentry, B. T. Harvey, Emory Hines, Bob Lee, Pop Long, Merritt, Billy Nicks, Alfred Priestly, Robinson, and E. E. Simmons. The funeral was officiated by Rev. Dr. T. J. Jemison.

Among the honors bestowed upon Mumford include him being elected president of the SWAC and executive vice president of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. In 1958 he was inducted into the NAIA–Helms Foundation Hall of Fame. In 1960 he was named “Coach of the Decade” for the 1950s by the 100% Wrong Club of Atlanta, an organization that fosters HBCU athletic competition. In 1961 he was given the Small College Service Award “for outstanding contributions to intercollegiate athletics” by the Football Writers Association of America. On February 25, 1962, shortly before his sudden death, Mumford was recognized by the Baton Rouge Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi “for outsanding achievement and social service.” Though he was much more closely associated with the NAIA, the National Collegiate Athletic Association even made a special point to issue a memorial resolution for Mumford at its fifty-seventh annual convention, in 1963. Southern’s A. W. Mumford Stadium, which saw its original concrete grandstand constructed during his tenure, was renamed for him on September 25,1982, following an expamsion project.

Mumford was subsequently posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (1984), the Southern University Sports Hall of Fame (1988), the SWAC Hall of Fame (1992), the HBCU Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame (before or in 2000), and the College Football Hall of Fame (2001). The American Football Coaches Association, of which he was a member, also selected him posthumously for the 2006 Trailblazer Award, for his coaching accomplishments at an HBCU in the decade of the 1940s (an especially noteworthy achievement considering that, back in 1960, he had been named “Coach of the Decade” for another decade—the 1950s). In 2011 he was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. In October 2016 the city of Buckhannon, West Virginia erected a plaque at the lot where his childhood home had been located. On November 4, 2016 Mumford was again acknowledged by the Southern University Sports Hall of Fame, this time with a new, life-sized statue bearing his likeness. Most recently he was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame, in 2019.

Accomplishments and Honors

Football

6 Black College National Championships

13 SWAC Championships

Basketball

1 Black College National Championship