WHEELING, W.Va. — A college Football Hall of Famer will be inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
Arnett (Ace) Mumford, who coached six Black College National Championship teams, will be feted by the W. Va. Sports Writers Association at the 65th annual Victory Awards Dinner on May 1 at the Village Square Conference Center in Clarksburg.
Mumford, who died in 1962 at age 64, will be posthumously honored and his plaque will be accepted by Parkersburg High football coach Don Reeves and displayed in the school Football Museum.
Mumford was born in Buckhannon, W.Va., and attended school, and played football, for segregated Sumner High in Parkersburg. In 1955, Sumner was integrated into Parkersburg High.
Mumford, who graduated from Wilberforce (Ohio) College in 1924, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001 and is regarded as one of the two best Black College football coaches in history along with Grambling’s Eddie Robinson, who retired as the all-time winningest college coach. Mumford’s teams defeated Robinson’s teams six of seven times they played.
After coaching from 1924-35 at Jarvis, Bishop and Texas College, Mumford became coach at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., from 1936-42, 1944-61 and recorded a 169-52-14 record including a 38-game unbeaten streak from 1948-51 plus 11 Southeastern Athletic Conference titles in 23 years. After winning a Black College National Championship in 1935 at Texas College, he coached five more championship teams at Southern, which has named its football stadium in his honor.
His overall coaching record was 235-82-25, including a 176-60-14 record in 26 years at Southern.
