Charles Bates is a former

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

coach. He was the 15th head football coach at

Kentucky State University Kentucky State University (KSU and KYSU) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Frankfort, Kentucky. Founded in 1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons ...

Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the prin ...

, serving for two seasons, from 1968 to 1969, and compiling a record of 2–15. In 1972, Bates succeeded

Alva Tabor Alva Tabor Jr. (October 16, 1925 – August 2002) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Wiley College from 1954 to 1955, Fort Valley State University from 1957 to 1959, Southern University from 1969 t ...

Southern University Southern University and A&M College (Southern University, Southern, SUBR or SU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in Louisiana, a ...

's 10th head football coach. After a tumultuous 2–7–1 start to his career at Southern, Bates and the Jaguars posted two eight-win seasons (1974, 1976) and a nine win-season in 1975 in which Southern captured a share of the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

SWAC title and won the

Pelican Bowl The Pelican Bowl is a defunct, Louisiana-based NCAA Division II bowl game that was intended to match the overall champions or top-seeded co-champions from the then-new Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the long-established Southwestern A ...

over

South Carolina State South Carolina State University (SCSU or SC State) is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States. It is the only public, historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina, is a memb ...

. After a rough 3–3–1 start to the 1977 season, Bates stepped down mid-season, and Ken Tillage took over coaching duties for the rest of the season. During his tenure at Southern, Bates favored the

Wishbone formation The wishbone formation, also known simply as the bone, is an offensive formation in American football. The style of attack to which it gives rise is known as the wishbone offense. Like the spread offense in the 2000s to the present, the wishbone ...

on offense. Bates won 36 games as coach for Southern, losing 23, and tied twice for a winning percentage of .606. This percentage places Bates fourth behind

Ace Mumford Arnett William "Ace" Mumford (November 26, 1898 – April 28, 1962) was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at historically black colleges and universities in Texas and Louisiana from 1924 to 1961, compiling a career c ...

(.730),

Brice Taylor Brice Union Taylor (July 4, 1902 – September 18, 1974) was an American football player and coach and track athlete. He played college football as a guard at the University of Southern California (USC), where he was one of first All-Americans in ...

(.725), and

Pete Richardson Pete Richardson (born October 17, 1946) is a former American football defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) and former college head coach. Richardson played college football at University of Dayton, and was drafted by the Buffal ...

(.688).

Head coaching record

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Kentucky State Thorobreds football coaches Southern Jaguars football coaches African-American coaches of American football 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{1960s-collegefootball-coach-stub