After waiting for nearly two decades, Rudy Hubbard is a Black College Football Hall of Famer.
“I lived to see it. It was great, man. It was special,” the legendary Florida A&M head coach told the Tallahassee Democrat.
On June 6, Hubbard was officially enshrined in Atlanta as part of the 17th class of the Black College Football Hall of Fame. His classmates are Nick Collins, Tyrone Poole, Eddie Robinson Jr., Jimmy Smith, and Steve Wyche.
Hubbard’s most notable accomplishment was leading FAMU to the first-ever NCAA Division I-AA national championship, beating Massachusetts 35-28 in 1978. It was the first Florida school to win an official NCAA championship in any sport and division.
The Rattlers are still the first and only Historically Black College and University to win a title in the I-AA, now known as the Football Championship Subdivision. Hubbard had an 83-48-3 record on The Highest of Seven Hills from 1974 to 1985.
Fellow Black College Football Hall of Famer Greg Coleman, who played for Hubbard’s Rattlers as a punter in the 1970s, placed the coach’s black jacket on him at the ceremony. Another former Rattler standout who played for the coach and is also a Black College Hall of Fame member, Nate Newton, FAMU representatives, and Hubbard’s family were in attendance.
“It was a relief,” Hubbard reflected on last Friday. “It bothered me from time to time. I had trained myself not to let it get too overwhelming. I felt like I deserved to be in. But it was gratifying as well because it was so well attended and they did such a great job of putting this affair on.”
Hubbard’s Black College nod follows his 1990 induction into the FAMU Sports Hall of Fame and his 2021 membership in the College Football Hall of Fame. Hubbard saw his College Football Hall of Fame display in the museum for the first time while spending the weekend in Atlanta.
He also has a street named after him near FAMU’s campus in Tallahassee, where he still lives today at 80 years old, and received a key to the city from Mayor John Dailey in 2021.
Those recognitions made Hubbard wonder what the holdup was to join the Black College Hall of Fame, which inducted its first class in 2010. It led him to express public discontent.
“I probably said some things that I didn’t need to say,” he explained.
The living legend said he took some time to apologize to Co-Founder James ‘Shack’ Harris and other decision makers.
But it wasn’t just his induction that led him to do so.
It was also seeing the yeoman service off the gridiron. The Black College Football Hall of Fame hosts an annual HBCU student career fair.
“I didn’t really know all the good work that they were doing,” Hubbard said. “So I’m going to be challenged, and I committed to be a part of helping them do whatever we’re going to do going forward.”
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Gerald Thomas, III, is a multi-time national award-winning reporter for his coverage of the Florida A&M Rattlers at the Tallahassee Democrat.
Follow his award-winning coverage on RattlerNews.com and contact him via email at GDThomas@Tallahassee.com or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU’s Rudy Hubbard relieved after Black College Football HOF induction
Reporting by Gerald Thomas III, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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By Gerald Thomas III, Tallahassee Democrat | USA TODAY Network
