Horace Judson oversaw period of remarkable turmoil in Grambling athletics

Horace Judson fired the athletics director on the day he took over as president of Grambling State University in 2004.

The departure of Al Dennis III, a former captain under legendary GSU football coach Eddie Robinson, was the first of many in a period of remarkable turmoil for an athletic department once known for its rock-solid stability.

That’s to say nothing of controversies on Judson’s watch involving the lapsed trademark of its signature “G” logo, the placing of a proposed Eddie G. Robinson Museum on campus, and a naming opportunity for the new Assembly Center in honor of longtime basketball coach and athletic administrator Fred Hobdy.

“It was really turbulent. A lot of people were offended from the beginning, when he fired Al Dennis,” said Ezzard Burton, a longtime member and administrator in the Grambling’s alumni association. “There were a lot of changes. Some of the hires were good; obviously, they all were not. The jury is still out on some of them, but I think (GSU football coach Rod) Broadway has been a great hire.”

Robinson, of course, set a standard for longevity at Grambling, serving as head football coach from 1941-97. Judson, meanwhile, gave Melvin Spears a three-year deal after GSU won the 2004 Bayou Classic — only to fire him in December of 2006.

A former assistant during the championship era of Doug Williams, Spears captured an undefeated 2005 league title after succeeding him — but then was let go when the team slumped to an abysmal three-win season in ’06.

Judson said Spears was fired because of pending NCAA violations — including a controversial team drug testing — but the program was later cleared of any significant wrongdoing.

A lawsuit over that matter, perhaps inevitably, followed and is still pending. Current coach Rod Broadway took over in early 2007.

The athletics director’s chair has spun at an even faster clip: After employing just five ADs over its first century, Grambling has run through four since July 1, 2004, Judson’s first day.

Asked if he had a replacement in mind after removing Dennis so quickly, Judson told me: “There is no one waiting in the wings.”

Instead, searches often took weeks, even months.

Duer Sharp, now the commissioner of Grambling’s home league, served in one of those interim athletics director stints for a remarkable six months while Judson mulled things. GSU actually waited four weeks after naming finalists before belatedly hiring Troy Mathieu in May of 2006.

“It’s in Dr. Judson’s hands,” Sharp told me, as that long month dragged on. “He’s the president. I move when he tells me to move.”

Between Judson’s initial firing of Dennis and the hiring of Mathieu, Grambling either had either no AD or an interim replacement for all but 313 days.

Mathieu left after two years, and his position subsequently remained open from July through October of last year. Sharon Perkins, a former women’s basketball player and senior women’s administrator at Grambling, served as interim AD until J. Lin Dawson took over.

Old timers were often shocked by the shifting foundation under a department that had helped build the Grambling reputation nationally.

“There have been changes made over the years, but not to this degree,” longtime sports information director Collie J. Nicholson told me in 2004. “I don’t think it will ever be as stable as it used to be.”

The late Nicholson served as Grambling’s SID from 1948-78. GSU had three over Judson’s five-year stint as school president.

After employing just two baseball coaches in its history, Grambling is on its fourth — including a candidate who was announced, then withdrawn for unspecified reasons — since 2006.

Hobdy helmed the men’s basketball team at GSU from 1957-86. Grambling has already had three coaches during the Judson administration, a sequence of events that included the resignation earlier this year of Rick Duckett after the death of a transfer player.