Cleveland Abbott
Cleveland Leigh "Cleve" Abbott was an American college football player, coach and educator. He was the head coach of the Tuskegee Golden Tigers football team from 1923 to 1954.
Life
Abbott was born in Yankton, South Dakota in 1894, one of seven children to Albert B. Abbott and Mollie Brown Abbott.Abbott graduated from high school Watertown, South Dakota. He received his bachelor's degree from South Dakota State College in Brookings, South Dakota. He was an outstanding, multi-sport athlete at Watertown High School and SDSC . Hired by Booker T. Washington in 1913 to be the Tuskegee Institute football coach and dairy instructor upon 1916 SDSC graduation.
He joined the US Army in 1917 at Camp Dodge and served in Europe in World War I as an officer in the 366th Infantry Regiment
After mustered out in 1919, Abbott taught at the Kansas Vocational School in Topeka, Kansas. In 1923, Abbott accepted a position as Athletic Director, professor and coach at Tuskegee. Abbott was the eighth head football coach for the Tuskegee University Golden Tigers located in Tuskegee, Alabama and he held that position for 32 seasons, from 1923 until 1954. Abbott earned the respect of his peers through his team's performance and by participating in national committees for the selection of "all-American" players at the collegiate level.
He was the first African-American member of USA Track and Field Board circa 1940 and the first African-American member of the US Olympic Committee in 1946. He coached the first African-American Olympic champion, Alice Coachman, and the second, Mildred McDaniel.
He was married to Jessie Harriette Scott and had had a daughter, Jessie Ellen Abbott.
Abbott died on April 17, 1955, in Tuskegee, Alabama.
Cleveland Abbott was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in September 2018.