Courtesy of Southern University Athletics
BATON ROUGE, La. – Legendary HBCU football coach Pete Richardson to be inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame for his time at Southern University.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) has announced its 2024 SWAC Hall of Fame Class which is set to be enshrined on Friday, December 13th, 2024. The enshrinement ceremony is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m. EST at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.
The newest members of the SWAC Hall of Fame were chosen from a list of nominees who were submitted by their respective institutions and selected by the SWAC Hall of Fame Selection Committee.
The 2024 Hall of Fame Honorees include Alcorn State’s Fred McNair, Grambling State’s Hillary Matthew Bossier (Legend), Southern’s Pete Richardson, Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s Earl Goldman (Legend), and Charlie Neal (Contributor).
Upon his arrival in Baton Rouge in 1993, Richardson ushered in the golden era of Southern University Football compiling 134 wins during a 17-year career. He is currently the second winningest coach in Southern football history in wins and winning percentage.
Richardson, affectionately known as “Coach Pete” led Southern football to five Southwestern Athletic Conference titles (1993, 97, 98, 99, and 2003), including a three-peat from 1997-99 (the school’s first consecutive SWAC titles since 1959-60). His teams also claimed four Black college national titles (1993, 1995, 1997 and 2003) in route to birthing one of the greatest fan bases in college athletics, The Jaguar Nation.
Richardson’s teams won four Heritage Bowl titles and went 12-5 in the Bayou Classic. He owns the distinction of being the only coach to go undefeated against Grambling’s iconic coach Eddie Robinson. He was also named the SWAC Coach of the Year five times (1995, 97, 98, 99 and 2003).
His winning percentage of 68.4 percent in 17 seasons (134-62) at the school is second behind only College Football Hall of Fame coach A.W. “Ace’ Mumford’s 70.4 percent (176-60-14). Prior to his arrival, Southern had last won the SWAC in 1966 and 1975.
Richardson is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Winston Salem State University Hall of Fame and most recently the Black College Football Hall of Fame. In 2021, the field inside A.W. Mumford Stadium was re-named Pete Richardson Field. The first Southern University home football game of every season is designated the “Pete Richardson Classic,” making him a bonidied HBCU football legend on many levels.