The 2024 season is Terrence Graves’ first official as Southern University’s head football coach, but the upbeat 55-year-old is no stranger to the Jaguar Nation.
Serving as Southern’s interim head coach during last year’s 50th Anniversary Bayou Classic, he led the Jags to a 27-22 victory over Grambling State University. And back in the mid-’90s, Graves began a 15-year tenure under storied Southern head football coach Pete Richardson, a man he considers an honorary father.
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“To have the opportunity to come back to where I grew up professionally and lead this program, words can’t describe that feeling.”
[Terrence Graves]
Athletics have been a big part of Graves’ life since childhood. A Norfolk, Virginia, native and the eighth of nine children, he embraced a range of sports—football, soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball and swimming. Football would become his main pursuit, earning him a scholarship to play at Wake Forest in 1989. But the team wasn’t the right fit, prompting a transfer the following season to Winston-Salem State, where Richardson was then head coach.
Sadness struck during Graves’ sophomore year. His dad was diagnosed with cancer.
“My father met Coach Richardson at the championship game, and I didn’t know it until years later, but he told Coach he didn’t know how much time he had left. And he said, ‘Take care of my baby boy,’” Graves says. “It was almost like a relay race. He passed the baton to Coach Richardson.”
After graduating, Graves hoped to be picked up by an NFL or Canadian Football League team. It didn’t work out. Richardson, by then at Southern, encouraged him to enter coaching. He recruited Graves to Baton Rouge in 1994, kicking off what would become a 32-year career that has included stints at Norfolk State, Mississippi Valley State and Grambling State.
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Ebullient and approachable, Graves has a reputation for being a player’s coach. And while discipline is his professional watchword, he’s also known for being accessible.
“They know that I’m fair, and I’m transparent,” he says. “You have to find out who a player is to meet them where they are and help them go from being young men to men.” gojagsports.com
This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue of 225 Magazine.