PETE RICHARDSON
HEAD COACH, 15th SEASON

To play for championships, to graduate his players and to have a team whose members are well respected in society, both on and off the playing field, is the vision of success Southern University head football coach Pete Richardson has for his program.

The success of the football program under Richardson has been well documented. Southern University has four, 11-win seasons and one 12 win season -- the 2003 Championship season in Richardson's tenure.

Southern University has won five conference titles under Richardson, including back-to-back-to-back crowns in 1997, '98 and '99; and the 2003 SWAC Championship, put the Jags and Richardson back into the football fray, as Black College National Champions, all while posting a 105-38 overall mark under Richardson's guise. His 105 wins ranks him second in SU's history, trailing only the legendary, A.W. Mumford.

Exploding on the scene in 1993, Richardson's impact was immediately felt around the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) as he led Southern to a 11-1 season (only the school's second, 11-plus win season), its first conference title in 18 years (a shared title in 1975) and the school's first outright crown in 34 seasons (1959).

Though there have been setbacks in Richardson's 14-year stay, those setbacks have done nothing but breed more success. Last season's 4-5 mark, along with an inconsistent 6-5 mark in his second year on the bluff, including a four-game losing skid -- the longest record of futility in the Richardson era.

After an off-season that focused on the `basics of football,' a rigorous strength and conditioning regiment and a new defensive scheme, the Jaguars bounced back and posted the school's third 11-plus win season (11-1) and was declared national champions of black college football with a 30-25 win over Florida A&M University in the fifth annual McDonald's Heritage Bowl.

Richardson would use a rigorous off-season program to instill a winning attitude in the members of the Jaguar football team. His team would respond by going 11-1 overall and an undefeated 8-0 in conference play. Southern University claimed its second conference title under Richardson and was regarded as black college national champions by the American Sports Wire after handing South Carolina State a 34-28 defeat in Heritage Bowl VII.

With the Jaguars setting the standard in the SWAC, and now challenging for championships and national recognition, the Pete Richardson Era is well on its way to becoming one of the more colorful and legendary in collegiate football history.

Pete Richardson came to Southern after five years at Winston-Salem State (1988-1992). In five seasons there, he compiled a record of 41-14-1. After assuming the reigns of an already successful program, Richardson's task was to maintain the established level of success and move the program beyond. He did just that. Richardson captured three CIAA conference championships (1988, '90-91) and led the Rams to two berths in the Division II playoffs (1990-91). At Winston-Salem State Richardson joined the coaching staff at Winston-Salem State in 1979 and initially gained quality experience as the offensive backfield coach of the program. The following year, he moved to the defensive backfield and became the defensive secondary coach. After a two-year stint there, Richardson was elevated to defensive coordinator before being named the head coach in 1988.

Richardson's honors include being named the Black Coaches Association's Coach of the Year in 1998, five-time SWAC Coach of the Year (1995, '97, '98, '99 and `03), Atlanta's 100% Wrong Club's Coach of the Year (1995, '97, '98, '99 and `03), Washington D.C.'s Pigskin Club's Coach of the Year (1995, '98 and `03), the Kodak Region IV Coach of the Year (1995) and the Sheridan Broadcasting Network's Coach of the Year (1997 & 2003). Richardson's also had the distinction of being named the 1999 Nokia Sugar Bowl Louisiana Coach of the Year.

Richardson has coached in five bowl games, has six collegiate conference crowns to his accord (three CIAA and three SWAC) and holds the honorable distinction of being the only Southwestern Athletic Conference coach never to have lost a game to the legendary Eddie Robinson, formerly of Grambling State. A first team all-state running back at Ohio's Youngstown South High, Richardson was recruited out of high school as a running back and defensive back by the coaching staff at the University of Dayton (OH).

At Dayton, Richardson began his career at tailback, before enduring an ankle injury, which forced a move to defensive back at the end of his freshman year. Richardson went on to become a three-year starter at the University of Dayton in the defensive backfield.

Richardson realized a childhood dream as he became a sixth-round draft choice of the NFL's Buffalo Bills in 1968, the roots of a four-year stint in the National Football League, where he established himself on the playing field as a two-time starter in the Bills' defensive backfield.

After suffering a career-ending injury to his left knee, Richardson proceeded to further his education and acquired a master's degree in guidance counseling in 1978 from the University of Dayton.

His lifetime involvement in athletics eventually led him to a coaching career, one that began in the halls of Ohio's Dayton Dunbar High. In only his second season on the staff, Richardson took over the head coaching reigns.

With the opportunity of moving to Division I-AA as the head coach of Southern University, along with the national exposure the Bayou Classic brought to SU football, Richardson opted to accept the challenge and signed on as the Jaguars mentor in 1993.

Since coming to Southern, Richardson has rallied the supporters of the program and has energized recruiting efforts, renewing the fortune of Jaguar football. In his first season, Southern University captured the NCAA division I-AA's national attention by going 11-1 on the year and grabbing the school's first bowl appearance and victory, an 11-0 blanking of South Carolina State.

Coach Richardson's ability to motivate his players to personal, academic and athletic success, his public relations acumen and his vision for the program means great things for the University for years to come.

A 1968 graduate of the University of Dayton, Richardson earned a bachelor's degree in Physical Education and later acquired a master's degree in Guidance Counseling in 1978.

Pete Richardson has one adult daughter, Deborale Bouie of Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania, and two grandchildren, Nathan and Monet.

Richardson is married to the former Lillian Raines of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.