Although the status of someone being legendary an arguable issue, the Southwestern Athletic Conference has quite a few confirmed legends. Former men’s basketball head coach David Whitney of Alcorn State has been called a legend and no one would dare argue that former Grambling State head football coach Eddie Robinson is not a legend. Here at Southern, the legacies that A.W. Mumford and Ben Jobe have left are legendary. So, is it safe to say that Jaguars’ football head coach Pete Richardson could be called a legend? If not, he is sure to be on his way.
“I would definitely call him a legend,” said Eric Randall, former SU quarterback from 1992-1995. “He had a great influence on me. He made us understand that football was a business and every player had a place to play.”
Randall said as a 20-year old, he initially thought that everything would be fun and games, but under Richardson’s tutelage, he learned different.
“He told us that the only way he could buy his wife nice things was if we as players won games,” the former quarterback said. “He then would tell us that the only way we could keep our scholarships was if we produced. That year we went 11-1. Only someone great would break it down for you like that. You bet he is a legend.”
Since his 1993 debut on “The Bluff,” Richardson’s record to date is 90-33. Only Mumford’s record of 176-60-14 is better and it took him 26 years to do that. If Richardson chose to coach ten more years, he would be on pace to become arguably the greatest football coach in Southern’s fabled history. He has never suffered a losing season and his longest losing streak was four games in 1994, when the team went 6-5.
“I’d observed Coach Richardson before he was at Southern, when I was doing broadcasting with BET,” said Grambling State football team head coach Doug Williams. “I can honestly say that he knows how to get his football team up and prepared to play.”
Richardson’s arrival at Southern came after spending five seasons at Winston-Salem State University, where he went 42-14-1 and won three CIAA titles.
He came to Southern after the Jags endured three consecutive losing seasons. In his first year, the Jags finished 11-1- the first of four 11-win seasons. He has won four SWAC Championships, two Black College National Championships and four Heritage Bowl Championships.
“Coaches like Pete Richardson are wonderful in three aspects,” said SWAC Commissioner Robert C. Vowels. “In the student-athlete aspect, the coaches’ aspect and the ambassador aspect. His history of winning is consistent and he is a leader on and off the field. Plus, his reputation in the SWAC is great. In the short time that I have known him, he’s done everything right in joining the SWAC on the big picture and our new vision.”
Since his tenure at WSSU, his numerous accolades include being named the 1998 Black Coaches Association Coach of the Year, SWAC Coach of the Year (four times) and the 1999 Nokia Sugar Bowl Louisiana Coach of the Year, just to name a few.
According to Richardson, a lot has changed since he has started coaching, especially in college football.
“College football has changed tremendously in the past years,” Richardson said. “I think that the business aspect is almost controlling it. We now have games on Wednesday and Thursday nights and back then, that was almost unheard of. Also, there are the money aspects. It forces institutions to improve the type of program they have. It puts a lot of pressure on coaches also in order to be successful because you are talking about megabucks coming into the university.”
Aspects in college football is not the only change that Richardson has noticed.
“I think that the biggest change that I see in myself is probably that I am more patient. I used to be a real energetic individual and I have understood over a period of time that I have to calm down,” Richardson said. “But of course you see the different teams and the athletes that you have to deal with and a lot of them are not as committed as the ones in the past, so a lot of them are impatient also. They want to play right now. But a lot of them are good athletes and not good players. A lot of them are not patient enough to develop the talent of becoming a player.”
Richardson said that two perfect examples of players with patience are quarterback Quincy Richard and senior defensive back Lenny Williams. He said that he was excited about coaching the two standouts.
“Both of them are first-class athletes,” Richardson said. “They are in a situation where they are going to go out and get respect.
Throughout his coaching years, Richardson has had to deal with athlete’s attitudes, administration woes and particularly, the Jaguar Nation, who may be sometimes overbearing.
“That’s part of it, because I have set expectations of our program from the beginning. Being in this area, football is king and everyone who has knowledge for the game can be sort of impatient,” Richardson said. “Also, when you don’t produce, they speculate that there will be some change and that is part of the pressure that is put on coaches in this area in order to produce. But I think that the main thing is to have knowledge of what you’re doing and the athletes that you have in those situations because those are the ones that hold you together. Then, of course, you have your wife.”
That would be Lilian Raines Richardson, who is always at his side, win or lose, after the game. She knows all too well what football means to her husband and what he means to Southern. He also has a daughter, Deborale and two grandchildren.
After 11 seasons of coaching, Richardson, who recently celebrated his 58th birthday, has been making plans for his future
He is scheduled for surgery on his right leg at the end of the season and right now, standing up two to three hours a day in practices has recently been somewhat painful.
But he noted that if it were up to him, he would coach up to five more years if he could and then go into athletics administration.
So, does Richardson think of himself as a legend? Quite humbly, he shied away from such notoriety.
“When you start talking about legends, you start talking about individuals like Eddie Robinson,” Richardson said.
“It feels good to have the respect of the people that have been around you because their knowledge of what type of job you’ve done and a larger part of that comes from the people around you.”
To be a coach who has occupied what is arguably one of the most visible jobs in Black college football for over 15 years and never suffer a losing season, only a legend could do that.
And we have one here on “The Bluff.”
