Rudy Hubbard
Rudy Hubbard is an American former football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida from 1974 to 1985, compiling a record of 83–48–3. Hubbard led the Florida A&M Rattlers to the inaugural Division I Football Championship|NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship], in 1978, and consecutive black [college football national championship]s, in 1977 and 1978. Hubbard played college football at Ohio State University, lettering from 1965 to 1967. Following his graduation from Ohio State in 1968, he remained with the Buckeyes football|Buckeyes] for six seasons as an assistant coach under Woody Hayes. In 2008, Hubbard returned to coaching the high school level, serving as head football coach at James S. Rickards High School in Tallahassee for four seasons.
Hubbard was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2021.
Early life
Hubbard was born in 1946 in Hubbard, Ohio, a small steel mill town near Youngstown. He attended Ohio State University, where he was a running back from 1965 to 1967. After graduation, Hubbard was hired by then head coach Woody Hayes as an assistant coach in 1968, making Hubbard the first African-American on the coaching staff of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team. He stayed on the coaching staff for six seasons before moving on to take the head coach position at Florida A&M University in 1974.Florida A&M
After a 6–5 mark in Hubbard's first year in 1974, the Rattlers went 9–2 in 1975, 6–3–2 in 1976, then began a stretch from the 1977 to 1979 seasons, where they went 30–5. The Rattlers went unbeaten at 11–0 in 1977, and in 1978 the Rattlers went 12–1 and wrapped up the season winning the inaugural NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship held in Wichita Falls, Texas on December 16, 1978, defeating the 1978 [UMass Minutemen football team|UMass Minutemen] by the score 35–28. Florida A&M remains the only Historically black college to have won the NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship. In 1979, the Rattlers went 7–4 but made an exclamation mark in the season with a 16–13 defeat of the Division I 1979 [Miami Hurricanes football team|Miami Hurricanes]. Hubbard spent 12 seasons with the Rattlers, and posted an 83–48–3 overall record, the third most wins in school history behind fellow FAMU head coaches Jake Gaither and Billy Joe. The Rattlers also won two Black college football national championships in 1977 and in 1978. During Hubbard's tenure, FAMU transitioned from the NCAA Division II's Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to NCAA Division I-AA independent status, and then joined Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 1980.The players under Hubbard who went on to play in the National Football League were Frank Marion, Ralph Hill, Tony Samuels, Clarence Hawkins, Greg Coleman, Gene Atkins, Tyrone McGriff, and Nate Newton. Vince Coleman, was a kicker at FAMU under Hubbard, and a standout player on the FAMU baseball team, went on to a career in Major League Baseball.