The legendary Fred "Pops" Long overall record in 45 years as a head coach was 227-151-31. He wrote: "Race prejudice exists not only in the heart of the white man, but in the heart of the black man as well. It is due, on either side, to a misunderstanding of the other, and there is only one reasonable and hopeful way to get rid of this, and this is through education."DECATUR, Ill. -- Millikin University recently uncovered even more reason to be proud of 1918 alumnus Fred Long, the school's first African-American graduate. During Millikin's Black History Month closing ceremonies next week, the Black Student Union will share with the rest of campus the newly found accomplishments of Long's historic life. The discovery started in November, when Millikin's archive and research associate, Todd Rudat, stumbled upon an announcement from the American Football Coaches Association.
Forty-three years after his death, the organization bestowed Long with the 2009 Trailblazers Award, an honor given once a year to the early leaders in football coaching at historically black colleges and universities.
Long's coaching career spanned five decades at four Texas colleges from 1921 until he suffered a heart attack in 1965. A second heart attack took his life in 1966. By then, he had become a national icon in the black community, earning him obituaries in national black publications including the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier.
Long was a highly esteemed football coach who spent most of his career at Wiley College in Marshall, where his team won the Black College Football Championship four times. He also coached at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas College in Tyler and Paul Quinn College in Dallas. "In his contemporary time, people recognized him as a legendary coach," Rudat said.
According to the NCAA, he was a part of the first recorded contest between two college coaches with 200 victories each. His Wiley team defeated a Southern University team coached by Arnett Mumford on Nov. 11, 1961.
"That was sort of a historical moment," Rudat said, pointing to one of many instances when Long set the bar for those who would come after him.
Through his research, Rudat was able to connect Long to those who were legends themselves, like Grambling football coach Eddie Robinson and poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson. Tolson was a professor at Wiley who was portrayed by Denzel Washington in the 2007 film, "The Great Debaters."
Millikin's history always has included Long's coaching career, but as Rudat dug deeper into Long's life, he discovered an entirely different accomplishment that stands on its own.
Long was one of the original members of the Negro National Baseball League in 1920.
Two years after graduating from Millikin, Long played professional baseball for the Detroit Stars during the league's first season. He also spent 1921 and 1926 with the Lions and 1925 with the Indianapolis ABCs. "He's constantly breaking down barriers that he recognizes as a young man, and sets about trying to bring about that change," Rudat said.
While at Millikin, Long played football and baseball and was a shot putter for the track team. According to Long's obituary from the Herald & Review, Millikin's 1916 football team was the first to go undefeated and the first to be called Big Blue, with the help of the 6-foot-2 Long playing center.
In additional to being a star athlete, Long was a commerce and finance student who earned a bachelor's degree after writing a thesis that took a sociological survey of the black population in his hometown, Decatur.
In his paper, he linked the idea of racial prejudice to a person's level of education. He wrote: "Race prejudice exists not only in the heart of the white man, but in the heart of the black man as well. It is due, on either side, to a misunderstanding of the other, and there is only one reasonable and hopeful way to get rid of this, and this is through education."
Millikin's effect on Long's development as a leader in the fight for equality was apparent in his life after college.
Long's first experience in the South came once he joined the Army after graduation. While stationed at Camp Greenleaf in Chickamaugua Park, Ga., he wrote to his brother Harry, who still was a Millikin student. He explained how he almost stopped to join in with a group of white men playing football but stopped when he realized he wouldn't be welcomed to join the game.
He asked his brother to give his regards to their white teammates still at Millikin who, he said, "made me feel as though I was a real man, and I'll remember that part they all played in my life."
Students accepted into Millikin's Long-Vanderberg scholar program, named after the school's first male and female African-American graduates, get a copy of that letter as part of their orientation each year.
"Millikin was progressive in many ways," said Latrina Denson, director of the Center for Multicultural Student Affairs. "And he saw that.
"Though I'm sure there was racism (at Millikin), I'm sure there were people here who were true supporters of Fred Long."
Jasmin Benavides, a sophomore and president of Millikin's Black Student Union, has learned a lot about Long while preparing for the closing ceremonies of Black History Month. "I appreciate everything that he's done before, during and after his time at Millikin," she said. "He just leaves a legacy at Millikin for us to follow."
Current Long-Vanderberg scholars have been recruited to help look through microfilm from articles about Long so the university can build a more complete history of his life.
"It's important to me to feel that even back then, Millikin had this family and welcoming atmosphere," Benavides said. "Even he could feel welcome at a university that was predominantly white."
- (Decatur) Herald & Review
LINK:http://www.herald-review.com
Fred "Pops" Long, Coaching Bio:
Long began his coaching career in 1921 at Paul Quinn (Texas) College. After recording just one victory in his inaugural campaign, Long guided Paul Quinn to a Southwestern Athletics Conference (SWAC) title in 1922. He was then hired away from Paul Quinn to take over the head coaching duties at Wiley College in 1923, which began his first of two stints as head coach at the Marshall, Texas, school. Long guided the Wildcats to nine SWAC titles from 1923-47, including four in a row from 1927 to 1930. He also led Wiley to four Black College National Championships in 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1945.
Long moved on to Prairie View A&M University in 1948 for one season, then spent the next seven years as head coach at Texas College (1949-55). He returned to Wiley College in 1956 and remained head coach until his retirement in 1965. He guided the Wildcats to another SWAC title in 1957, going 6-0 in league play. His overall record in 45 years as a head coach was 227-151-31. Long’s teams also played in three post-season bowl games, the Angel Bowl, the International Bowl and the Orange Blossom Classic, and 27 of his players were selected First Team All-America. He also coached basketball, baseball, track, tennis and golf at Wiley and won conference crowns in each sport.
In 1925, Long helped inaugurate the "State Fair Classic" matching his Wiley Wildcat team against Langston University each year until 1929 when Langston was replaced by Prairie View. The game was always on Negro Day of the state fair and soon was drawing in excess of 20,000 fans to the Cotton Bowl (stadium). During that same period he also served as Athletic Director for the colleges he worked for and often coached every sport those schools offered including track, baseball, basketball, tennis, and golf. He was elected to the presidency of the Southwestern Athletic Conference on three occasions.
On November 11, 1961, Long, with 215 coaching victories at the time, coached Wiley College against Southern University, coached by Ace Mumford who had 232 coaching victories, in the first known college football match-up in which both coaches had over 200 victories. Long's Wiley team won, 21-19. During his long tenure at Wiley College, Long also served as Athletic Director and the Fred Thomas Long Student Union building there is named in his honor.
In addition to receiving the 2009 Trailblazer award, Long has been inducted into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame (1962), the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame in Dallas (1996), and the Southwestern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame (2001). The Trailblazer Award was presented posthumously to Long at the AFCA Kickoff Luncheon on January 11, at the 2010 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) convention in Orlando, Florida. Long passed away in 1966.
The AFCA Trailblazer Award was created to honor early leaders in the football coaching profession who coached at historically black colleges and universities. Past Trailblazer Award winners include Charles Williams of Hampton (2004), Cleve Abbott of Tuskegee (2005), Arnett Mumford of Southern (2006), Billy Nicks of Prairie View A&M University (2007) and Alonzo “Jake” Gaither of Florida A&M University (2008). The award is given each year to a person that coached in a particular decade ranging from 1920-1970.
In an article appearing in The Marshall News Messenger on November 30, 2001, about Long’s induction into the SWAC Hall of Fame, the late, great Eddie Robinson was quoted as saying, “Coach Long did some great things. Long is a legend in this sport and it is imperative that he and the other nominees are enshrined for their outstanding contributions to their schools and to the community that they represent.”
From: AFCA.com and other sources
