Legendary HBCU football coach Porter dies at 94

GRAMBLING, La.– Doug Porter, the longtime football coach at historically Black colleges who was the oldest living member of the College Football Hall of Fame, has actually died. He was 94.

Porter passed away Wednesday. Miller Funeral Home said a funeral service is set for June 15 at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Grambling.Porter was the head

coach at Mississippi Valley State, Howard and Fort Valley State. He was an assistant coach under Eddie Robinson at Grambling, went back to the school in 1997 as an advisor and assisted develop the Eddie G. Robinson Museum in Grambling. Doug Porter, who coached at Mississippi Valley State, Grambling, Howard and Fort Valley State, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008. AP Photo/Joe Raymond Porter coached at Fort Valley State in Georgia

from 1979 to 1985 and again from 1987 to 1996, going 112-66-3. ″ He left an enduring impact on not only his players, but all trainees, professors, personnel and alumni,”said Jeffery Parlor, a former player under Porter at Fort Valley.At Fort Valley, Porter was a seven-time Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and was athletic director for 16 years. He was chairman of the Department II Football Committee and president of the National Athletic Steering Committee. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FVSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009. From Memphis, Tennessee, Porter played quarterback at Xavier of Louisiana and served in the U.S. Army before entering into coaching. He started his college training profession at Mississippi Valley State, going 21-19 from 1961 to’65, invested 9 seasons at Grambling with Robinson, then was 30-21-2 at Howard from 1974 to’78.”Doug Porter was an impressive individual, crafting an impressive career in training and sports administration amongst the HBCU ranks,” National Football Foundation chairman Archie Manning stated.”A terrific football mind, he was a top-flight recruiter who cared deeply about his players and put them in a position to prosper.”Porter’s better half, Dr. Wilma Jean Porter, passed away in 2017.