CHATTANOOGA, TN – Prairie View A&M head football coach Henry Frazier was voted the Eddie Robinson FCS National Coach of the Year at the 23rd annual Sports Network Football Championship Awards Banquet Thursday night.
Frazier became the first coach from a Historically Black College and University to win the Eddie Robinson Award, established in 1987 in honor of the former Grambling State head coach and College Football Hall of Famer who retired as college football’s all-time winningest coach with 408 victories.
“It is a humbling honor,” said Frazier, who has posted a 36-27 record at PV in his six seasons as head coach, including an impressive 25-5 mark over the past three seasons that concluded with the 2009 SWAC Football Championship. “It’s a great honor to be considered the top coach in your conference and it’s an even greater honor to be considered the top coach in the country.”
Frazier, who earned SWAC Coach of the Year honors after the Panthers’ 30-24 win over Alabama A&M in the Farmers Insurance SWAC Football Championship last Saturday, won the national award in the second-closest vote ever. Frazier edged Stephen F. Austin head coach J.C. Harper 237-235, in voting done by a panel of sports information directors and media who regularly cover the FCS.
The Panthers were ranked 18th in the final regular season Sports Network Poll, the highest ranking ever by a PV gridiron team. PV finished second in the final rankings in both the Sheridan Broadcasting Poll and the BASN/Boxtorow.com Polls, narrowly missing out on a Black College Football National Championship.
His dedicated efforts have paid off. Hope they can get a stadium built before coach Frazier leaves.
More Texas student-athletes should now listen when he calls. He had a good core this year and surely more will come.