Former HBCU coach who was the oldest living College Football Hall of Famer, dies at 94

GRAMBLING, La. — Doug Porter, the longtime football coach at historically Black colleges who was the oldest living member of the College Football Hall of Fame, has died. He was 94.

Porter died Wednesday. Miller Funeral Home said a funeral service is set for Saturday, June 15, at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Grambling.

Porter was the head coach at Mississippi Valley State, Howard and Fort Valley State. He was an assistant coach under Eddie Robinson at Grambling, returned to the school in 1997 as an advisor and helped establish the Eddie G. Robinson Museum in Grambling.

Porter coached at Fort Valley State in Georgia from 1979 to 1985 and again from 1987 to 1996, going 112-66-3.

″He left a lasting impact on not only his players, but all students, faculty, staff, and alumni,” said Jeffery Parlor, a former player under Porter at Fort Valley.

At Fort Valley, Porter was a seven-time Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference coach of the year and was athletic director for 16 years. He was chairman of the Division II Football Committee and president of the National Athletic Steering Committee. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FVSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.

From Memphis, Tennessee, Porter played quarterback at Xavier of Louisiana and served in the U.S. Army before getting into coaching. He began his college coaching career at Mississippi Valley State, going 21-19 from 1961-65, spent nine seasons at Grambling with Robinson, then was 30-21-2 at Howard from 1974-78.

“Doug Porter was a remarkable person, crafting an impressive career in coaching and athletics administration among the HBCU ranks,” National Football Foundation chairman Archie Manning said. “A great football mind, he was a top-flight recruiter who cared deeply about his players and put them in a position to succeed.”

Porter's wife, Dr. Wilma Jean Porter, died in 2017.

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