By Sylvester “Nunnie” Robinson
For the past two months our focused has been centered around iconic HBCU coaches such as Big John Merritt, Alonzo “Jake “ Gaither, Eddie “ Black Jesus “ Robinson, Marino “ The Godfather “ Casem, Earl “ Papa Bear ” Banks, W. C. Gordon and William James “Billy” Nicks. Our series concludes with HBCU stalwart and Wilberforce University graduate Arnett (Ace) Mumford, whose career began at Jarvis Christian College from 1924-27 where he compiled a 6-8-3 won/loss record. His fortunes improved drastically at his next appointment, Bishop College, consummating a 3-year tenure there from 1927-29 with a 22-7-1 record. At Bishop College he also coached basketball and baseball.
His next stop, Texas College, proved even more rewarding as he led the Steers to 26 wins, 9 losses and 6 ties in a four year stretch from 1931-35. It was a contest against Southern in which his Texas College team soundly defeated the Jaguars that Southern officials noticed his coaching prowess based essentially on offensive execution, quickness, speed and discipline as opposed to physical brute force, superior size and brawn.
Having proved he knew how to orchestrate a mediocre program into a winning one, he was chosen to lead the Southern University Jaguars, members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) arguably the most dominant, competitive and talent-laden conference in the annals of Black College football. And Coach Miumford was clearly up to the task as he led Southern University in Baton Rouge to unbelievable heights, amassing a 179-61-13 record from 1936-1961. Coach Mumford ended his incredible career with an overall won/loss record of 233-85-23.
As Coach Joe Redmond and I were choosing which icon to feature, hindsight says it was totally and succinctly arbitrary, based more on familiarity and personal experience. Coach Mumford, you see, was the 34th pick in ESPN’s greatest 150 college coaches, regardless of race, 2nd only to Eddie Robinson, with whom he fashioned a 5-1 head to head record. Mumford’s coaching techniques were timeless: His Texas College and Southern teams won a total of six Black college national championships in four different decades. From 1948-51, his Southern teams had a 38-game unbeaten streak and won three black college national titles. In 1948, the Jaguars went 12-0 and beat San Francisco State in the Fruit Bowl, precedent setting at the time because it pitted an HBCU against a PWI. The 12-0 record stood for many years as the best won/loss season by a HBCU institution. His Southern program had become so popular and successful that it attracted White patrons. When construction on Southern’s new stadium was completed, a section accommodating a maximum of 150 specifically for whites was included. Like FAMU’s Jake Gaither many famous white coaches like Frank Broyles and Bear Bryant visited Coach Mumford, seeking strategic information that led to Coach Mumford’s gridiron success.
Most impressively, Coach Mumford was inducted into eight halls of fame, resulting from his coaching success, acumen, and gridiron victories. Arnett William “ Ace Mumford was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia on November 26, 1898 and died April 28, 1962 in Scotlandville, Louisiana. His sudden death from a heart attack at 63 years old was felt by many in collegiate athletics. Notables such as T. B. Ellis, Alex Durley, Howard Gentry, Bob Lee, Zip Gayles, B.T. Harvey, Billy Nicks, Eddie Robinson, Albert Priestly, E.E. Simmons, and Jake Gaither were among those who served as pallbearers or honorary pallbearers at his funeral.
His accomplishments and honors as a coach/educator are myriad: elected president of the SWAC and executive vice president of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics; inducted into the NAIA–Helms Foundation Hall of Fame; named “Coach of the Decade” for the 1950s by the 100% Wrong Club of Atlanta, an organization that fostered HBCU athletic competition; given the Small College Service Award “for outstanding contributions to intercollegiate athletics” by the Football Writers Association of America; and Southern’s A. W. Mumford Stadium, which saw its original concrete grandstand constructed during his tenure, was renamed for him on September 25, 1982,following an expansion project.
Mumford was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (1984), the Southern University Sports Hall of Fame (1988), the SWAC Hall of Fame (1992), the HBCU Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame (2001).
The American Football Coaches Association, of which he was a member, also selected him posthumously for the 2006 Trailblazer Award, for his coaching accomplishments at an HBCU in the decade of the 1940s, an especially noteworthy achievement considering that, back in 1960, he had been named “Coach of the Decade” for another decade—the 1950s). In 2011 he was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. In October 2016 the city of Buckhannon, West Virginia erected a plaque at the lot where his childhood home had been located. On November 4, 2016 Mumford was again acknowledged by the Southern University Sports Hall of Fame, this time with a new, life-sized statue bearing his likeness. Most recently he was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame, in 2019.
6 Black college national (1935, 1948–1950, 1954, 1960), one at Texas College and 5 with Southern . In addition he also won12 SWAC (1934–1935, 1938, 1940, 1946–1950, 1955, 1959–1960) 2 with Texas College and the others with Southern respectively.
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