Racial tension, stress from coaching took toll on Hubbard
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The letter appeared in Rudy Hubbard?s mailbox shortly after a newspaper story chronicled him being offered a job on Woody Hayes? Ohio State football coaching staff.
"It was from St. Petersburg (Fla.), and it was evident it was from an Ohio State alum," Hubbard said. "It was threatening me, if I actually took the job, what they would do to me."
The year was 1968, a time of upheaval and unrest in America, and the occasion was Hubbard becoming OSU?s first black coach.
Nothing came of the threat, but it wasn?t the last time Hubbard would feel unwelcome in his six years at OSU, or later as head coach at Florida A&M.
"Some of the stuff was pure hell," said Hubbard, 59, who left coaching in 1985 after 11 years, 83 wins and two Division I-AA national titles at FAMU. "Sometimes I wonder how good I could have been if I had to deal with just coaching, not looking out all the time with my head on a swivel."
At one point in his career, a fist-size patch of hair fell out of his head.
"Nerves," he said.
It was the price he paid for being a pioneer.
Growing up in Hubbard, Ohio, a predominantly white community near Youngstown, Hubbard was not aware of much racism. He starred in football, basketball and track in high school and was one of "six or seven" blacks in Hayes? 1964 recruiting class.
Hubbard was the only one, however, not to drop out by his sophomore year. He had his moments of glory on the field, including a memorable 1967 game against Michigan (103 yards, two TDs), but when his career was over he was resentful he hadn?t played more.
That led to a verbal confrontation with Hayes after his senior season.
"Coach Hayes came and spoke at a football banquet at my high school," Hubbard said, "and he and I had had some words. I kind of let him have it in front of everybody. I figured that would be the last time he and I would have to talk, anyway."
He figured wrong. After a brief attempt at playing in Canada, Hubbard returned to OSU to finish his degree.
"It wasn?t two weeks (after he returned) that Woody called me and offered me a job. I was flat-out blown away."
Hubbard wore horn-rimmed glasses and a big Afro, political statements of black power. He was an angry young man.
"I don?t know if Woody really put a lot of thought into hiring me," Hubbard said. "I just don?t know if he really had made up his mind what he wanted me to do."
Hubbard coached running backs, Hayes? pet position, and said he had to convince Hayes he could draw up plays on the board before practice.
"I don?t think he thought I could legibly do that," Hubbard said. "When I did, he was impressed with the organization, and I?ve got pretty good handwriting. So then it got a lot better for me, but there were some tough times.
"You just never know how deep (prejudice) is with people, and that?s what makes it difficult."
Earle Bruce, a fellow assistant, said he didn?t feel Hayes treated Hubbard poorly.
"I thought Woody was very good with Rudy and very good with responsibilities," Bruce said. "Rudy came in and made his presence felt and was in the group.
We all knew him and it was just like he was supposed to be there.
"He had good ideas about coaching. He was a solid person."
Hubbard?s most famous contribution to OSU was helping to recruit a running back out of Eastmoor High School named Archie Griffin.
Griffin said having a black position coach, uncommon in 1972, was an important factor in his choosing the Buckeyes.
"Rudy had a lot to do with that," Griffin said. "That?s not to say that other coaches weren?t great guys, as well. But no question, having somebody to identify with was very, very helpful. I had a real good relationship with him and I could ask him anything."
That fall, Hubbard recommended that Griffin be the starter. Woody stuck with Elmer Lippert and Morris Bradshaw through the first game and the first quarter of the second, against North Carolina.
With OSU trailing 7-0, Hubbard called down from the press box and told another assistant to "tell Woody if we don?t play Archie Griffin, we could lose this game."
Griffin went in and became an instant legend with a school freshman-record 239 yards.
But Hubbard became frustrated with the long hours, low pay (never more than $18,000 at OSU ? the lowest on the staff by far, he said) and no foreseeable chance for advancement. When Florida A &M offered him a job in 1974, he took it.
"I loved it (at OSU)," he said. "But what they were paying me was crazy, and with us working like we worked . . ."
With the Rattlers, Hubbard went 11-0 in 1977, then 12-1 in 1978, winning the inaugural I-AA national title.
Big schools came calling. Hubbard could have been the first black coach in Division I-A, but he turned down offers from Hawaii ("too far") and Wichita State, which eventually hired Willie Jeffries, breaking the race barrier.
Ohio State called when Hayes was fired. Hubbard interviewed but told his questioners that Hayes had said it would be tough to follow a legend.
Bruce was hired, touching off a protest from the Columbus chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Hubbard immediately and publicly stated his support for Bruce.
Later that year, Florida A &M shocked Miami, 16-13. Hubbard started talking about how the Rattlers could beat anyone, and that apparently angered some people.
"My daughter, she was small at the time, came wanting to sleep in our bed," Hubbard recalled. "She was thinking she heard somebody outside her window. I had heard that from her before, so I made her go back to her room.
"The next morning, I go out to see a burned cross in my yard. Somebody had been at my daughter?s window, and I about lost it. I was so upset about that."
Two weeks later, someone painted "KKK" on Hubbard?s fence. Eventually, police caught the teenage perpetrators.
When Hubbard was fired in November 1985 after two losing seasons, he decided to get out of coaching at age 39.
"At one point, I thought I would coach all my life," he said. "But when I got released, I thought, ?What are you going to do, go back to coaching high school? Or go back as an assistant and get kicked around by a head coach?? "
Now he is an independent financial adviser in Tallahassee.
"I felt like I was good at coaching and I enjoyed coaching," Hubbard said.
"But I couldn?t take it anymore. It just wore me down, going beyond the call of duty just to justify your existence."
For 35 years or so, the threatening letter he received in 1968 sat tucked away in his mother?s house, a reminder that someone once wished him bodily harm because of his skin color. Margaret Hubbard recently returned the letter to Rudy.
"Looking back, coaching was just not a good occupation for a black guy," Hubbard said. "There were too many closeminded people. It?s probably a better occupation today in terms of pay, at least a guy now can make a decent living. "But back when I was doing it, it was a bad situation."
The Columbus Dispatch - Local/State
STORY THREE - RUDY HUBBARD
Rudy Hubbard is a former OSU running back and Assistant Coach, who was responsible for recruiting Archie Griffin to Ohio State. He was also the Coach at Florida A&M, and led the team to a National Championship in 1978. Archie Griffin is the ONLY Two-Time Heisman winner in NCAA Football History.
He notes, "Archie was a class guy. He wanted to be considered not just a jock. He felt Ohio State in some territories was being considered a football factory, and he didn't want any part of it. He wanted to get a good education, and that was first and foremost what he felt like Northwestern could provide. Obviously, they had done a good job on him. We were able to get that all turned around. Everything was above board".
In 1972, Archie's freshman year, he fumbled a ball in his first game. He was listed #3 on the depth chart. During the Buckeyes next game against UNC, he told the offensive coordinators they would lose the ballgame if Archie didnt play. The offensive coordinator told Coach Hayes that Rudy said to put Archie in the game. Rudy notes, "That was it. Archie ended up with more than 200 yards that game...and the rest was history".
Rudy ended up leaving Ohio State, because he was upset with Woody Hayes. He says, "All in all when I left, I was upset and I let him know that". Woody was a speaker at appreciation banquet and Rudy let Woody have it at that banquet. Woody acted like he never heard Rudy. About a week later, Rudy got a call from Woody, asking to see him at his office. Rudy thought Woody was upset and they were going to have it out. Woody ended up offering him a job as Assistant Coach at Ohio State.
Rudy says he "was the first black assistant in any sport at Ohio State, certainly in football". "I was one of the first in the Big 10 in football". And he received lots of threats from around the U.S. because of it. He notes he learned many things from Woody, and often remembers things he said that would keep him grounded. You would "pick up stuff about life that nobody else would be giving". He says Woody was a very wise man. He notes "I'm using it on a regular basis. I don't think there are alot of people I've been around that could have given me that much information that would be as helpful over all the years".
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