The college football world, indeed the entire nation, lost a giant last week. Doug Porter was that rare individual who devoted his entire life and career to HBCUs, but accomplished so much and positively affected so many people he wasn’t overshadowed or overlooked. Porter, who was 94, excelled in multiple athletic phases. He was an outstanding player, head coach, athletic director and later overall small college administrator. He did all this while never abandoning the HBCU universe in search of bigger fame and larger riches. He certainly could have done that given his connections and stature, but he preferred working with young men and having an impact on the futures of Black athletes, particularly those who weren’t going to be professionals.
Porter was born and grew up in Memphis. He played quarterback at Xavier of Louisiana and then did a military stint before he decided to enter the coaching world in the early ‘60s. At that time college sports was largely segregated and totally that way in the South. So Porter started at Mississippi Valley State, spending four seasons there and compiling a 21-19 record. But it was his next job that cemented Doug Porter’s career and also helped him become such a powerhouse figure during his time as an assistant coach under Eddie Robinson. He spent nine years working under Robinson, where he learned everything he needed to know about not only in-game coaching and tactics, but relationships, staff building, dealing with faculty and alumni, etc. He would then head to Fort Valley State, where he would coach twice. His first period was from 1979-1985, and the second from 1987-1996. He compiled a 112-66-3 mark while there. Porter would also become a seven-time Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year at Fort Valley while also serving as the school’s athletic director for 16 years.
But he never lost his love for Grambling. He returned there in 1997 as an adviser and helped establish the Eddie G. Robinson Museum in Grambling. Porter’s devotion to HBCUs specifically and small colleges in general took him into other roles later in life. These included being chairman of the Division II Football Committee and president of the National Athletic Steering Committee. Porter was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FVSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.
″He left a lasting impact on not only his players, but all students, faculty, staff and alumni,” Jeffery Parlor, a former player under Porter at Fort Valley, told ESPN. “Doug Porter was a remarkable person, crafting an impressive career in coaching and athletics administration among the HBCU ranks,” National Football Foundation chairman Archie Manning said. “A great football mind, he was a top-flight recruiter who cared deeply about his players and put them in a position to succeed.”
Prior to his death, Doug Porter was the oldest living member of the College Football Hall of Fame, and one of the few who could speak with knowledge and conviction about the many changes that the game has undergone. It’s a sure bet if he were still active he’d be unhappy at the way the fate of HBCUs and small colleges are steadily being ignored in the mad rush towards huge paydays being made by the Power conferences. His passing is another reminder of the constantly changing landscape of college athletics, and the necessity for some realistic strategies and polices to be crafted by those schools who are being ignored in this new world of NIL and the transfer portal.
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