Career
Richardson played college football at University of Dayton, and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the sixth round of the 1968 NFL Draft. He played for the Bills for three years until a knee injury ended his playing career. Richardson embarked into a steadfast 30 plus year coaching career in the late 1970s, starting out in the high school football ranks in Dayton, Ohio, before moving up to Division II (National Collegiate Athletic Association) football in 1979 as he joined the coaching staff at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
In 1988 Richardson became the head coach of the Winston-Salem State University Rams.
He left the Winston-Salem State Rams football program in good shape, and pursued a higher challenge he became head football coach on the Division 1-Associate of Arts level at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1993. His teams also made six appearances in the now defunct Heritage Bowl, a post-season HBCU Bowl game.
He is the only coach in the history of the Southern University football program to have the unique distinction go undefeated against College Football Hall Of Fame coach Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University Tigers in the Bayou Classic. There were a huge number of former Southern Jaguar players who have come through during Richardson"s tenure, who were All-SWAC Conference players and Black College All-Americans.
Only a very few of them have able to move on and establish careers in the National Football League.
They are Jerry Wilson, Ahmad Treaudo, and Lenny Williams. The other players have been practice squad free agents, who have seen little to no action. Yancey Thigpen was the only Winston-Salem Ram player under Richardson who went on to the NFL.
