DOVER, Delaware -- It was a decision that was as controversial as it was courageous.Former Delaware State athletic director Nelson Townsend didn’t just hire a new football head coach in 1981.
He hired a white one.
Not surprisingly, the move to hire Joe Purzycki was met with protests at the predominantly black school.
But Nelson stuck to his decision. At the time, DSU’s biggest football claim to fame was its 105-0 loss to Portland State the season before.
“As blacks, we are cognizant of blacks having a chance to go to white schools,” Townsend said in a New York Times story. “But in a way we were speaking with forked tongues. Why shouldn’t a qualified white coach be a candidate at a black school?”
On Thursday, Townsend died at the age of 73 in Tallahassee, Fla. He was working as Florida A&M’s interim AD when he collapsed during a morning meeting.
Townsend’s passing is being mourned at several schools where he worked in his 40-year career. That lists includes FAMU, Buffalo and Maryland-Eastern Shore along with DelState.
Townsend’s tenure as DSU’s athletic director from 1979-86 is arguably as successful an athletic period as the school has ever seen.
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