Former Florida A&M head football coach Rudy Hubbard was again named to the 2021 College Football Hall of Fame ballot last week by the National Football Foundation.
He holds the distinct honor of being the only HBCU head coach to win an NCAA Division 1-AA National Championship when his Rattlers won the inaugural title in 1978.
Hubbard didn’t mince words during an interview on The HBCU Report with Rob Calloway when asked about his thoughts on receiving the call to inform him he was on the ballot. “Well, I really didn’t get the phone call to be honest with you,” Hubbard said. “Which is disturbing.”
Because he won a national championship as a head coach, Hubbard said he learned that he would automatically be added to the ballot every year until inducted. He’s been on the ballot since 2014.
Indicating that his nomination was solely for his work as head coach at FAMU and nothing to do with his previous stint as an assistant coach at Ohio State, Hubbard said he learned of his first-year nomination from someone at Ohio State.
“My first year, it was the people from Ohio State that told me I was on it. I wasn’t still coaching at Florida A&M, but my people at Florida A&M didn’t even know it,” Hubbard said. “The same thing happened this year. It was actually my daughter who went to Grambling who sent me the article just the other day. I’ve not talked with anybody at Florida A&M about being back on the ballot, and they’ve not talked to me.”
Hubbard did mention that having relatively new people in certain positions such as sports information director, athletic director, and president on the Florida A&M campus is likely why the school has not been “in tuned” as much as he’d like for them to be. He thinks more communication with the school could help in him eventually being inducted.
“I’m not hearing a whole lot from Florida A&M people. That’s the point,” he said. “I think for me to get over, I’ve got to get some kind of push from Florida A&M people or the MEAC to really get in.”
You can listen to the entire interview below.
