Don Hudson, the first African American head football coach at a predominantly white college in the modern era, will be honored at Macalester College at halftime during the football game against Colorado College on Saturday, October 6, 2007. The game starts at 1 p.m.
Coach Hudson became head coach at Macalester in December 1971, at least three months before Ron Stratten at Portland State (March 1972) and over a year before Cass Jackson at Oberlin College (January 1973).
Coach Hudson's family, former Macalester athletes who played for him and other well-wishers will join in the celebration. There will be a luncheon in his honor two hours before the game.
Jay Weiner, former Star Tribune reporter, researched and wrote an article about Coach Hudson in Minnesota Monthly. [read the article]
Macalester College , founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,884 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism and civic engagement.
Related articles:
Read the Oct. 2 Don Hudson interview with Bob Sansevere of the St. Paul Pioneer Press
Read the Oct. 5 Star Tribune story on Coach Hudson by Rachel Blount
Read the Oct. 10 Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder story on Coach Hudson by Charles Hallman
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Matthew Washington Bullock is thought to be the first African American head football coach at a predominantly white institution when he coached at Massachusetts Agricultural College (now known as University of Massachusetts ) in the early 1900's. He had graduated from Dartmouth in 1904 and paid for his Harvard Law School education by coaching. Coach Hudson is the first African-American head football coach in the country at a predominately white college in the modern age.
