Former Macalester football coach Don Hudson, the first black head coach at a predominantly white college in the modern era, died Sunday in Charlotte, N.C. He was 88.
Hudson was Macalester's head coach from 1972 to 1975.
Hudson was hired as the head coach at Minneapolis Central High School in 1968, becoming the first black football coach in the City Conference. He had previously been an assistant in Missouri at the high school and collegiate levels.
He was hired as an assistant coach at Macalester in 1970. When he was named head coach in December 1971, no other college team outside of the historically black colleges and universities had been led by an African American in the modern era.
Hudson left Macalester in 1975 to become head coach of his alma mater, Lincoln University. He later was a teacher and coach in Colorado.
Macalester honored Hudson at halftime of a football game in 2007 and a year later, following the completion of the Leonard Center, the football coach's office was named the Coach Don Hudson Football Office.
A memorial service for Hudson will be held on Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, 3355 N. 4th St., Minneapolis.
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