It was a long climb, but Willard Bailey has reached the apex of college football coaching.

The former coach at four Virginia colleges was formally inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame last Saturday in Atlanta.

“This is the highest award a coach can get, and I share it with players and coaches and family,” he told the Free Press.

“I’m so happy for so many people. I had a mighty ground crew as my support.”

The Suffolk native was the lone coach inducted in the Hall of Fame Class of 2021. He is enshrined now in the Hall of Fame along with players Coy Bacon (Jackson State), Greg Coleman (Florida A&M), Jimmie Giles and Roynell Young (Alcorn State) and Winston Hill (Texas Southern).

Coach Bailey posted an overall record of 238-169-7 at Virginia Union University during two stints, Norfolk State University, the former St. Paul’s College and Virginia University of Lynchburg.

He went 157-73-6 at VUU while winning six CIAA titles and guiding the Panthers to the NCAA Division II playoffs on five occasions.

After leaving VUU the first time, Coach Bailey posted a record of 52-40-1 at his alma mater, NSU, adding another CIAA crown and another NCAA bid.

With very limited resources, he was 21-37 at St. Paul’s in Law- renceville and 8-19 at the independent Lynch- burg school.

Coach Bailey came to VUU in 1966 as an assistant under Coach Thomas “Tricky Tom” Harris.

“Dr. Wendell Rus- sell (then academic dean at VUU) heard about me while I was coaching at Essex County High in Tappahannock. He found out about me through my old statistics teacher at Norfolk State.

“Dr. Russell asked me to come to Virginia Union even though I didn’t have much more than a driver’s license,” Coach Bailey recalled.

He became head coach in 1971 and in his third season, 1973, he directed the team to their first CIAA crown in decades.

He returned to VUU a second time from 1995 to 2003.

While at VUU, he sent at least six players to the NFL— Herb Scott, Anthony Leonard, Malcolm Barnwell, Carl Bland, Pete Harris and James Atkins.

At Norfolk State, he helped get quarterback Willie Gillus to the NFL.

While at St. Paul’s, he helped develop defensive back Greg Toler, who became the Tigers’ only athlete to ever reach the NFL.

“It’s not just the NFL players,” Coach Bailey said. “I’m just as proud of all the husbands and fathers and, yes, now grandfathers I helped in life.”

As for his own age, Coach Bailey says with a chuckle: “I’ll admit to 59.”

In any interview, Coach Bailey is quick to deflect the attention to his former players and assistant coaches and even to sportswriters and sponsors. One he holds especially dear to his heart is the late Jesse Chavis, who served as his defensive coordinator during his first stint at VUU.

“Very few—very few—could score on us,” he said. “Coach Chavis was cut from the Denver Broncos due to an injury. Denver’s loss was Virginia Union’s gain.”

Coach Bailey is not forgotten by his legion of friends on the Lombardy Street campus.

Each year, VUU celebrates his legacy with the Willard Bailey Classic, a fall football matchup. This year’s event will be Saturday, Sept. 18, against one of Coach Bailey’s former schools, Virginia-Lynchburg.

The Willard Bailey Classic always draws a huge con- gregation of former VUU players, coaches and fans.

Coach Bailey welcomes them all to share the view from the mountaintop.