PRINCE HALL
New Member
Mumford Stadium is Ace's Place
By CAROL ANN BLITZER
cblitzer@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
6-24-2002
Advocate photo by Jaclyn McCabe
In 1982, Southern's stadium was named for A.W. 'Ace' Mumford, the legendary coach who led Southern's football team from 1936 until his death in 1962.
Southern University football fans are counting the days. In just two months, they'll be back at Mumford Stadium rooting for the Jaguars.
Southern's support of its football team is legendary, almost as legendary as the man for whom the stadium is named, Arnett William "Ace" Mumford.
Mumford, who coached at Southern from 1936 until his death in 1962, built Southern's football team from a group of athletes playing on an open field to a winning power with its own stadium.
"Mumford was the best coach they've had there," said John Brown, who served as an assistant coach under Mumford from 1957 until Mumford's death. "He was first class."
Local businessman Horatio Thompson, a 1937 Southern graduate, remembered when Mumford first came to Southern. "He was coaching at Texas College," Thompson said, when he brought his team to take on the Jaguars.
"Everyone knew that Southern was going to win," said Elton C. Harrison, a 1938 graduate and former dean (later vice president) of academic affairs at Southern.
Everyone knew wrong.
"Mumford came here, and they gave us a good whipping," Thompson said.
As Mumford's team was boarding the bus to leave, Southern's dean came out and told him that some items were missing from the dormitories where the Texas College players had stayed.
Photo provided by Irene Mumford Tucker
A.W. 'Ace' Mumford, center, was a fixture on the sidelines for the 26 years he coached football at Southern University.
"Mumford made everyone get out of the bus and go through all of their things until the missing items were found," said Thompson, who recalled that Southern President J.S. Clark turned to the people around him and said, "This is the kind of man we want."
They got him in 1936.
Southern had no stadium when Mumford arrived in Baton Rouge. Games were played either at Stanocola Park or on a practice field near the present Southern University School of Nursing.
"They didn't have lights. They didn't have a band," Thompson said.
Harrison, who was a student at Southern at the time, helped build the house that Mumford and his family moved into on Faculty Row. "Everybody was excited that Mumford was coming to Southern," he said.
The new coach had many obstacles to overcome, including the fact that he was responsible for baseball and basketball as well as football.
"He was in charge of the entire athletic program," said Harrison.
Mumford's first football season was dismal. The team won only two games. In his second year, Mumford broke even with four wins, four losses and one tie.
Mumford worked his players hard.
"He drilled them over and over and over again," Harrison said. "The fellows would get so disgusted."
Advocate photo by Jaclyn McCabe
From left, Southern alumnus Elton C. Harrison; Coach Mumford's daughter, Irene Mumford Tucker; and Southern alumni Horatio Thompson and Larry C. McGhee Sr. recall the days when the legendary coach ruled over Southern's football program.
Mumford's daughter, Irene Mumford Tucker, grew up on the Southern campus in their home at No. 1 Swan Street.
"The house we lived in was right across from the field they practiced on," she said. "It would be dark, and from our porch, we could hear them practicing on the field."
In a 1984 interview in The Advocate, Emory Hines, now deceased, a Texas College guard who moved to Southern with Mumford, described practice under Mumford.
"He was a perfectionist. He didn't believe in going in from practice until he was satisfied. We didn't have lights on the practice field, but coach Mumford would get the players down by the end of the field near the street lights and work until he got what he wanted. He used to tell his coaches, 'I think it's better we stay out here now and get it right and enjoy Saturday night,'" said Hines, who served as a football coach and athletic director at Southern.
Mumford worked his coaches, too. Brown said practices started at 6:30 a.m.
"The coaches had to get there 15 minutes early," Brown said. "Sometimes we had coaches' meetings until 1 a.m."
Brown said the students and coaches called Mumford a "sleep camel" because he could go without sleep for six or seven days.
Hard work paid off, however, and within three years, Mumford had a winning football team and hopes for a new stadium.
The west side of the present stadium, built with a dormitory below the seating area, was completed in 1940.
"Because it contained the dormitory, WPA (Work Projects Administration) funds could be used," Harrison said. WPA was one of several federal programs in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, which sought to bring economic stability to the country and end the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"We had a first-class field," Brown said. "It had great drainage. It could rain all day Friday and Saturday morning, and Saturday night the field would be great to play on."
As Southern became the team to beat among the schools in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, fans flocked to the games.
With so much support, Southern outgrew the stadium.
"We went to Memorial Stadium for major games," Harrison said, "because this one was too small."
When Larry C. McGhee Sr., present director of facility planning at Southern, was a student at the university in the late 1950s, wooden bleachers were placed on the east side, opposite the original concrete seats, to handle the overflow crowd.
But the large games still had to be held at Memorial Stadium.
"The students complained," Harrison said. They wanted games on their campus.
In 1958, the state Legislature voted the money to expand the stadium to increase the seating to 20,500.
The extra room would be needed as Mumford never stopped trying to improve his game, often inviting football greats such as Alabama's Bear Bryant, to the campus.
"We had Bear Bryant down here every year," Brown said. "He'd give us information. He'd help us. He didn't mind telling us anything because he knew we were never going to play him."
"I can recall Coach Mumford sitting down with them (Bryant and Coach Frank Broyles) here at Southern, moving soda-water tops in offensive and defensive patterns until the wee hours of the morning," Hines said in the 1984 Advocate interview.
"That's how he kept up," Harrison said. "He was in front of many black coaches of his day."
But all of the coaches in the conference were the best of friends, Brown said, adding he hung around the Mumford home to enjoy the camaraderie especially among the four best-known coaches in the league -- Mumford; Caesar "Zip" Gayles from Langston University in Langston. Okla.; Billy Nicks from Prairie View A&M College in Prairie View, Texas; and Fred "Pop" Long from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.
Mumford died suddenly in April 1962 after his second day of directing a state track and field tournament.
"The Dallas paper said he died in his cleats," his daughter recalled.
Mumford coached 25 seasons at Southern compiling a record of 169 wins, 57 losses and 14 ties. He won 11 SWAC titles and four Black National Championships. From 1947-50, his team had four successive undefeated seasons and went 42-0-3 in 45 games. In 1948, the Jaguars were a perfect 12-0-0 including an 18-0 win over archrival Grambling. In 1952, Southern beat Bishop College 105-0.
Even with his outstanding record, Mumford received little national recognition in the years he was coaching for Southern. It would be more than 20 years before Mumford's successes were recognized.
"The times sort of victimized him," Hines said in the 1984 interview.
Harrison said for years after Mumford's death there was a lot of "barbershop talk" about naming the stadium for him.
By the 1970s Southern had again outgrown the stadium, and for six years, the games were played once again at Memorial Stadium.
After another major renovation, the team moved back on campus to the stadium, which on Sept. 25, 1982, was dedicated as A.W. Mumford Memorial Stadium.
The renovation included stands for an additional 4,500 fans and a new lighting system that could handle regional and national television.
In 1984, Mumford was the first black coach to be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Two years later, Southern University commissioned the late Frank Hayden to sculpt a bust of Mumford, which is on display in the John B. Cade Library on the campus.
On Aug. 11, 2001, Mumford was inducted into the National Football Foundation's College Hall of Fame at ceremonies in South Bend, Ind.
Today, Southern continues to be a football powerhouse among the nation's historically black universities.
It ranks among the top nationally in Division 1-AA schools for attendance at football games.
Last year, Mumford Stadium underwent a $7 million renovation, and McGhee said more improvements are coming. Plans are to demolish the old dormitory built under the west side bleachers. It's still used for team meetings and dressing and locker rooms, but has not been used for housing since the 1960s when newer dormitories were built on the campus.
Mumford's widow, Rosa Verdell Mumford, will be 96 in October and now lives in a local nursing home. In a 1984 Advocate interview, she reminisced about her late husband. "He was firm in his opinions. He was a disciplinarian and he was strict. Football was his life -- he lived it, loved it," she said.
Their daughter agreed, but added that family was also important.
"Daddy just lived for football. That was his passion," Tucker said, "but our family time was quality time."
She recalled family picnics and evenings sitting around the old Philco radio listening to programs together.
Football, however, is in her blood. She never misses a Southern home game.
"I try to catch as many out-of-town ones as I can, too," Tucker said.
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By CAROL ANN BLITZER
cblitzer@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
6-24-2002
Advocate photo by Jaclyn McCabe
In 1982, Southern's stadium was named for A.W. 'Ace' Mumford, the legendary coach who led Southern's football team from 1936 until his death in 1962.
Southern University football fans are counting the days. In just two months, they'll be back at Mumford Stadium rooting for the Jaguars.
Southern's support of its football team is legendary, almost as legendary as the man for whom the stadium is named, Arnett William "Ace" Mumford.
Mumford, who coached at Southern from 1936 until his death in 1962, built Southern's football team from a group of athletes playing on an open field to a winning power with its own stadium.
"Mumford was the best coach they've had there," said John Brown, who served as an assistant coach under Mumford from 1957 until Mumford's death. "He was first class."
Local businessman Horatio Thompson, a 1937 Southern graduate, remembered when Mumford first came to Southern. "He was coaching at Texas College," Thompson said, when he brought his team to take on the Jaguars.
"Everyone knew that Southern was going to win," said Elton C. Harrison, a 1938 graduate and former dean (later vice president) of academic affairs at Southern.
Everyone knew wrong.
"Mumford came here, and they gave us a good whipping," Thompson said.
As Mumford's team was boarding the bus to leave, Southern's dean came out and told him that some items were missing from the dormitories where the Texas College players had stayed.
Photo provided by Irene Mumford Tucker
A.W. 'Ace' Mumford, center, was a fixture on the sidelines for the 26 years he coached football at Southern University.
"Mumford made everyone get out of the bus and go through all of their things until the missing items were found," said Thompson, who recalled that Southern President J.S. Clark turned to the people around him and said, "This is the kind of man we want."
They got him in 1936.
Southern had no stadium when Mumford arrived in Baton Rouge. Games were played either at Stanocola Park or on a practice field near the present Southern University School of Nursing.
"They didn't have lights. They didn't have a band," Thompson said.
Harrison, who was a student at Southern at the time, helped build the house that Mumford and his family moved into on Faculty Row. "Everybody was excited that Mumford was coming to Southern," he said.
The new coach had many obstacles to overcome, including the fact that he was responsible for baseball and basketball as well as football.
"He was in charge of the entire athletic program," said Harrison.
Mumford's first football season was dismal. The team won only two games. In his second year, Mumford broke even with four wins, four losses and one tie.
Mumford worked his players hard.
"He drilled them over and over and over again," Harrison said. "The fellows would get so disgusted."
Advocate photo by Jaclyn McCabe
From left, Southern alumnus Elton C. Harrison; Coach Mumford's daughter, Irene Mumford Tucker; and Southern alumni Horatio Thompson and Larry C. McGhee Sr. recall the days when the legendary coach ruled over Southern's football program.
Mumford's daughter, Irene Mumford Tucker, grew up on the Southern campus in their home at No. 1 Swan Street.
"The house we lived in was right across from the field they practiced on," she said. "It would be dark, and from our porch, we could hear them practicing on the field."
In a 1984 interview in The Advocate, Emory Hines, now deceased, a Texas College guard who moved to Southern with Mumford, described practice under Mumford.
"He was a perfectionist. He didn't believe in going in from practice until he was satisfied. We didn't have lights on the practice field, but coach Mumford would get the players down by the end of the field near the street lights and work until he got what he wanted. He used to tell his coaches, 'I think it's better we stay out here now and get it right and enjoy Saturday night,'" said Hines, who served as a football coach and athletic director at Southern.
Mumford worked his coaches, too. Brown said practices started at 6:30 a.m.
"The coaches had to get there 15 minutes early," Brown said. "Sometimes we had coaches' meetings until 1 a.m."
Brown said the students and coaches called Mumford a "sleep camel" because he could go without sleep for six or seven days.
Hard work paid off, however, and within three years, Mumford had a winning football team and hopes for a new stadium.
The west side of the present stadium, built with a dormitory below the seating area, was completed in 1940.
"Because it contained the dormitory, WPA (Work Projects Administration) funds could be used," Harrison said. WPA was one of several federal programs in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, which sought to bring economic stability to the country and end the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"We had a first-class field," Brown said. "It had great drainage. It could rain all day Friday and Saturday morning, and Saturday night the field would be great to play on."
As Southern became the team to beat among the schools in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, fans flocked to the games.
With so much support, Southern outgrew the stadium.
"We went to Memorial Stadium for major games," Harrison said, "because this one was too small."
When Larry C. McGhee Sr., present director of facility planning at Southern, was a student at the university in the late 1950s, wooden bleachers were placed on the east side, opposite the original concrete seats, to handle the overflow crowd.
But the large games still had to be held at Memorial Stadium.
"The students complained," Harrison said. They wanted games on their campus.
In 1958, the state Legislature voted the money to expand the stadium to increase the seating to 20,500.
The extra room would be needed as Mumford never stopped trying to improve his game, often inviting football greats such as Alabama's Bear Bryant, to the campus.
"We had Bear Bryant down here every year," Brown said. "He'd give us information. He'd help us. He didn't mind telling us anything because he knew we were never going to play him."
"I can recall Coach Mumford sitting down with them (Bryant and Coach Frank Broyles) here at Southern, moving soda-water tops in offensive and defensive patterns until the wee hours of the morning," Hines said in the 1984 Advocate interview.
"That's how he kept up," Harrison said. "He was in front of many black coaches of his day."
But all of the coaches in the conference were the best of friends, Brown said, adding he hung around the Mumford home to enjoy the camaraderie especially among the four best-known coaches in the league -- Mumford; Caesar "Zip" Gayles from Langston University in Langston. Okla.; Billy Nicks from Prairie View A&M College in Prairie View, Texas; and Fred "Pop" Long from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.
Mumford died suddenly in April 1962 after his second day of directing a state track and field tournament.
"The Dallas paper said he died in his cleats," his daughter recalled.
Mumford coached 25 seasons at Southern compiling a record of 169 wins, 57 losses and 14 ties. He won 11 SWAC titles and four Black National Championships. From 1947-50, his team had four successive undefeated seasons and went 42-0-3 in 45 games. In 1948, the Jaguars were a perfect 12-0-0 including an 18-0 win over archrival Grambling. In 1952, Southern beat Bishop College 105-0.
Even with his outstanding record, Mumford received little national recognition in the years he was coaching for Southern. It would be more than 20 years before Mumford's successes were recognized.
"The times sort of victimized him," Hines said in the 1984 interview.
Harrison said for years after Mumford's death there was a lot of "barbershop talk" about naming the stadium for him.
By the 1970s Southern had again outgrown the stadium, and for six years, the games were played once again at Memorial Stadium.
After another major renovation, the team moved back on campus to the stadium, which on Sept. 25, 1982, was dedicated as A.W. Mumford Memorial Stadium.
The renovation included stands for an additional 4,500 fans and a new lighting system that could handle regional and national television.
In 1984, Mumford was the first black coach to be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Two years later, Southern University commissioned the late Frank Hayden to sculpt a bust of Mumford, which is on display in the John B. Cade Library on the campus.
On Aug. 11, 2001, Mumford was inducted into the National Football Foundation's College Hall of Fame at ceremonies in South Bend, Ind.
Today, Southern continues to be a football powerhouse among the nation's historically black universities.
It ranks among the top nationally in Division 1-AA schools for attendance at football games.
Last year, Mumford Stadium underwent a $7 million renovation, and McGhee said more improvements are coming. Plans are to demolish the old dormitory built under the west side bleachers. It's still used for team meetings and dressing and locker rooms, but has not been used for housing since the 1960s when newer dormitories were built on the campus.
Mumford's widow, Rosa Verdell Mumford, will be 96 in October and now lives in a local nursing home. In a 1984 Advocate interview, she reminisced about her late husband. "He was firm in his opinions. He was a disciplinarian and he was strict. Football was his life -- he lived it, loved it," she said.
Their daughter agreed, but added that family was also important.
"Daddy just lived for football. That was his passion," Tucker said, "but our family time was quality time."
She recalled family picnics and evenings sitting around the old Philco radio listening to programs together.
Football, however, is in her blood. She never misses a Southern home game.
"I try to catch as many out-of-town ones as I can, too," Tucker said.
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