The Pete Richardson legacy atSouthern University will continue for another three seasons. The Jaguars’ headfootball coach reportedly agreed to a three-year contract extension.
The new contract will pay Richardson $200,000 per year inbase salary with performance incentives up to $40,000. The extension makes Richardson thehighest paid coach in Division I-AA and in the history of Historically BlackColleges and Universities.
The Southern University Board ofSupervisors met Jan. 8 and approved the new contract.
“Overall, I’m pleased with thecontract as far as security for my family and with the university. And I’m looking forward to theextension,” Richardson said.
Richardson, after 12 years atSouthern, entered the final season of his contract wishing to negotiate a newdeal. Richardson’s old contract had a base salary of $140,000, a housingallowance worth an additional $12,000 and the use of a courtesy car.
The contract also has incentivesthat could pay $25,000 to$30,000. These incentives are tiedinto graduation rates, national Division I-AA rankings, conferences and blackcollege national championships.
Southern denied Richardson’srequest for a five-year contract extension and was willing to only offer athree-year deal.
”I don’t think a lot of people would come back if he was toleave; a lot of recruits wouldn’t come here because he changed the programaround so much,” said Mike Lymon Jr, a junior rehabilitation counseling servicemajor from Donaldsonville, who is also a member of the Jaguar football team.
Within the football seasonRichardson was content to focus only on the season and let his lawyers, WadeShows and Jim Wayne handle the negotiations. The lawyers began working on a newcontract just before the Jaguars’ season opener on Labor Day weekend. They rejected the school’s initialoffer of a package worth $205,000. A clause in the offered contract would allowthe school to fire Richardson and reassign him within the athletic departmentfor a salary equal to his new position.
“The negotiations were good;they were positive and when we all got together and came up with the decision,he accepted the final offer of the university,” said Floyd Kerr, SU athleticdirector. ” I feel good that wegot it done in a timely manner so we can preserve recruiting and move theprogram forward stabilizing our football program.”
Richardson’s current contractexpires at the end of June. Thiscontract, a five-year extension put together in 2000 gives him a salary of$152,000 per year, including a housing allowance and up to $35,000 inadditional incentives. If Southern had not offered a new contract Richardsonwould have continued to work at Southern until June, if he did not get a jobelsewhere. He had drawn interestfrom other schools but declined to say which ones.
“I’m glad they got it workedout, so now I can build for the future,” Richardson said.
Richardson’s arrival at Southernin 1993, came after spending five seasons at Winston-Salem State University,where he went 42-14-1 and won three CIAA titles. In his first year the Jaguars finished 11-1, the first offour 11-win seasons. Richardsonhas never had a losing season in 17 years as a head coach, with a career recordof 147-52-1 and 105-38 at Southern. In the 12 seasons at Southern, Richardson has captured four BlackCollege National titles, five Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and fourHeritage Bowl Championships. Thispast season, Richardson guided the Jaguars to an 8-4 record to winning theSWAC’s Western Division before falling 40-35 to Alabama State in the SWACChampionship Game on Dec.11, 2004.
Season ticket holder LionelBrown, a graduate student in history from Baton Rouge said, “He will keep theprogram going strong from what you have seen in the past — he always had apretty strong program.”
The only preceding coach to havea better record at Southern is Arnett William “Ace” Mumford, who is enshrinedin the College Football Hall of Fame. A.W. Mumford, the namesake for the Jaguars’ football stadium, had a176-60-14 record at Southern from 1936 To 1961. He won eleven Southwestern Athletic Conference championshipsand six Black College National championships.