Mickey Clayton’s commitment to Florida A&M and community was unwavering and extended across decades.
Clayton won conference championships as a head basketball coach with the Rattler men’s and women’s programs, raised money for athletics at the helm of FAMU Boosters, and later started a media company that promoted high school sports across the state.
Clayton’s death in Tallahassee Aug. 25 has left those close to him reeling. He was 70.
“Mickey was such a big person and such a large force in women’s athletics – and he took that to the next level when he got involved with the boosters and men’s program,” said former FAMU Athletics Director Sarah Hill-Yates, who resides in Chicago.
“We just clicked. He would always put everything he had into everything he did.”
A FAMU Hall of Fame inductee in 1996, Clayton’s well-versed tenure at the university included time in academics, student activities, compliance and as executive director of the boosters (2006-16).
Second-year FAMU football coach James Colzie said Clayton’s impact was far-reaching.
“He’s real, real big here at FAMU. A legend here and I know he’s done a bunch of great things here,” Cozlie said. “He’s touched a lot of lives while he was coaching and being an alumni here. I know a lot of people are affected by his passing. Prayers to his family, loved ones, and friends.”
Mickey Clayton a familiar name in FAMU athletics, in Tallahassee
Clayton was a former star basketball player at Merritt Island in the early 1970s and a FAMU graduate.
One of Hill-Yates’ first coaching hires at FAMU in 1977, Clayton made history as the only NCAA Division I coach to win championships in both men’s and women’s basketball at the same institution during his nearly 40-year tenure.
Clayton guided the women’s team to a sweep of the Trans America Athletic Conference (now the New South Women’s Conference) regular-season and tournament titles in 1985-86.
He then led the men’s team on an improbable run in 1998-99, winning the MEAC Tournament after finishing near the bottom of the regular-season standings and earning the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid. The Rattlers lost to eventual national runner-up Duke in the first round.
Clayton was intense on the court and invested in the well-being of players off it.
“He really looked out for us and tried to be a father figure, always professional and worked us really hard,” said Claudette Farmer, who also served as team captain and a graduate assistant under Clayton, and later enjoyed a successful career in education and coaching at her alma mater, Rickards High.
Added Dr. Sybil Rivers, Ph.D, a former star athlete at Marianna High in the early 1980s who declined Clayton’s initial offer to play for the Rattlers.
“I would not pass him up again,” Rivers said and laughed. “He really cared about us and I just knew I was in the right place. He was very stern but he expected a lot out of you. Because he expected so much out of you, you wanted to do well.
“You can’t talk about Florida A&M without mentioning Mickey Clayton.”
Earl Hankerson, a FAMU graduate and athletics director at Rickard High, said he first met Clayton when Clayton started his media company. The pair quickly become close friends.
“It was great to have a senior mentor, confidant, and somebody you could just talk to,” Hankerson said.
“He was never too old to learn. He was my big brother, and he called me his little brother. I just talked to him on Sunday. And to get that call (Monday) was tough – getting ready to have a grandchild and was taking care of his grandson. It’s a tough one for me. That was my golfing buddy. He meant a lot to me. One of my best friends.”
Sharon Bee, who was Clayton’s assistant with FAMU Boosters and his media company INSiiGHTS, said Clayton cared deeply about FAMU and helping kids. Clayton was devoted to his family, coached AAU girls basketball and also loved Cleveland’s professional sports teams.
“He never met a stranger,” Bee said.
“He was always the extra daddy to a lot of kids. Everybody loved him. That was their coach.”
Democrat sports writer Gerald Thomas III contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ‘A legend’: Former FAMU basketball coach, hall of famer Mickey Clayton dies
Reporting by Jim Henry, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
