Haney Catchings (January 15, 1949 – April 19, 2015) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach. He served as head coach at

Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU or PV) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas, United States. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two lan ...

from 1987 to 1989 and at

Tuskegee University Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU; formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It was founded as a normal school for teachers on July 4, 1881, by the ...

from 1993 to 1995, compiling a career

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

record of 19–41.

Coaching career

Prairie View A&M

Catchings was the 16th head football coach at

Prairie View, Texas Prairie View is a city in Waller County, Texas, United States, situated on the northwestern edge of the metropolitan area. The population was 8,184 at the 2020 census. Prairie View A&M University, the second-oldest public university in Texas, i ...

and held that position for three seasons, from 1987 until 1989. He initially served in an interim capacity for the final seven games of the 1987 season, taking over for

Conway Hayman Conway Holmes Hayman (January 9, 1949 – March 7, 2020) was an American football player and coach. He played as a guard in college and professionally and later became a collegiate head football coach. Playing career University of Delaware Haym ...

who was fired after a 0–3–1 start. His overall coaching record at Prairie View was 8–19. He only put together one team with an even record, when his 1988 team finished 5–5—the once-proud program's first non-losing season in 13 years. However, the school subsequently forfeited one win over Southern due to an ineligible player.

Academic accusations

Catchings was accused of pressuring his players to abandon their studies in favor of football. According to multiple players, Catchings "withheld textbooks and financial aid until players proved themselves on the field. For some players, it was the middle of the semester before Catchings thought them worthy of getting their books. As a result, 43 players on the 55-man roster had

grade point average Grading in education is the application of standardized Measurement, measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentage ...

s below the NCAA minimum of 2.0. The players demanded that Catchings be fired. When the administration was slow to act, the players boycotted the program.

Program suspension

In May 1989, Prairie View shuttered its entire athletic program, except for track and field, due to massive financial problems. A month later, the

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

reported that some $100,000 was missing from the athletic department's account. Eventually, Catchings was charged with filing fraudulent expense reports. In 1991, he pleaded guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges related to the scam. He was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to pay over $1,500 in fines and restitution. The fallout from the fraud would hobble Prairie View for several years to come. Ahead of the team's planned return to the gridiron in 1991, school officials sent a letter to 30,000 alumni asking for donations. However, only 150 people responded--not nearly enough to fund scholarships for the football team. Prairie View would go on to lose 80 consecutive games from 1989 to 1998, dating back to the final two losses of Catchings' last season--the longest

losing streak In sports, a losing streak (a.k.a. a cold streak, losing skid, slide, schneid, or losing Slump (sports), slump) is an uninterrupted string of contests (games, matches, etc.) lost by a team or individual. A losing streak is thus the opposite of a ...

in NCAA history. Even after breaking the losing streak in 1998, Prairie View would only win a total of 23 games over the next nine years until going 7-3 in 2007--the school's first "official" non-losing season since 1976.

Tuskegee

Catchings later became the head football coach at

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee ( ) is a city in Macon County, Alabama, Macon County, Alabama, United States. General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, laid out the city and founded it in 1833. It became the county seat in the same y ...

. He was the 14th head coach for the

Golden Tigers This is a list of supporting characters of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Allies * El Aguila – Mutant swashbuckler and costumed crime fighter. * Noah Burstein – The scientist who gives ...

and held that position for three seasons, from 1993 until 1995. His coaching record at Tuskegee was 11–22. Catchings died of cancer in 2015, aged 66.Notice of death of Catchings
fayobserver.com; accessed April 21, 2015.

Head coaching record

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catchings, Haney 1949 births 2015 deaths Alabama State Hornets football coaches Albany State Golden Rams football coaches Alcorn State University alumni Fayetteville State Broncos football coaches Prairie View A&M Panthers football coaches Tuskegee Golden Tigers football coaches High school football coaches in North Carolina African-American coaches of American football Deaths from cancer in North Carolina Place of birth missing 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century American sportsmen