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Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN where he was a three-year starting center on the football team. He received All-America honors as a senior and earned his degree in health and physical edu- cation in 1962. Brother Alexander began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Tennessee State Tigers from 1962 to 1963. He coached at George Wash- ington High School in Chicago, Illinois from 1963 to 1965 and at Lester High School in Memphis, Tennessee from 1966 to 1970. He was the head coach and athletic director at East High School in Memphis from 1971 to 1974. He was appointed the defensive line and tight ends coach for the Vanderbilt Commodores from 1975 to 1978. He was the tight ends coach of the Miami Hurricanes from 1979 to 1984 and the wide receivers coach from 1985 to 1988. At the University of Miami, Alexander coached numerous All Americans and future NFL stars including Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin. When Irvin was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, he called Alexander his “heart” during his enshrine- ment speech. “Coach, you took me as a young man out of high school, and I know I gave you a lot of mess through the years,” Irvin said then. “Thank you for being there, Coach.” Recalling his father’s time at University of Miami, Chad Alexander remembered, “My dad was the only African-American coach on the Miami staff for a while... He recruited some remarkable players to that school — Russell Maryland, Jerome Brown, Cortez Kennedy — to name a few. But he really just left a tremendous imprint on the program. He really was instrumental in building that program from nothing.” When Jimmy Johnson replaced Tom Landry as head coach of the NFL Dallas Cowboys, Alexander joined Johnson’s staff as the club’s wide receivers coach. He left Dallas to coach for the Minne- sota Vikings (1998-99) and coached Pro Football Hall of Famers Randy Moss and Cris Carter. He completed his NFL coaching career with the New
Orleans Saints from 2000 to 2003.
Brother Alexander is survived his wife, Gloria and sons Chad, Todd and Bard.
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
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