Gene Derricotte, one of Michigan's first Black football players, dies at age 96

Gene Derricotte, one of the University of Michigan’s first African-American athletes, who played on back-to-back national championship football teams in 1947 and 1948, earned degrees in pharmacy and dentistry, and had a long, decorated military career that included being an aviator with the famed Tuskegee Airmen, died March 31 in San Antonio.

Derricotte was 96. A memorial service will be held April 28 in Texas.

He was born June 14, 1926 in Fostoria, Ohio, and after graduating as valedictorian from Defiance (Ohio) High, he attended Michigan from June 1944 to December 1944. He was the first African-American to play in the offensive backfield for the Wolverines and started nine games at left halfback. He led the team in total offense with 618 yards on 105 plays.

After that season, Derricott entered the Army, then transferred to the Army Air Corps and began pilot training in Tuskegee, Ala. He graduated in May 1946 with a second lieutenant’s gold bar and served two months. Although he was too late to fight in World War II, Derricott was included as part of the original group of Tuskegee Airmen who flew in the war. In March 2007, Derricott was one of six surviving Tuskegee Airmen awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, in recognition of their service to the United States.

Derricotte returned to UM in September 1946, and entered the School of Pharmacy. He earned four football letters and still holds the Michigan single-season record for most punt returns returned for touchdowns with three during the 1947 season. He had four returns for scores during his career (1944-1948), which is tied for first at Michigan with Steve Breaston and Derrick Alexander. He is tied for sixth with John Kolesar for career punt returns with 55, is third in most punt-return yards for a season (396 in 1947) and fourth in career yards with 751.

"He would always talk about the fact that he was the lead kickoff and punt-return person," Rick Sinkfield, president of the Tuskegee Airmen chapter in San Antonio, told the San Antonio Express-News in a story published April 1. "In fact, he had the longest kickoff return at the time as a record at the University of Michigan. I think it’s still there. He always talked about that."

Michigan inducted Derricott into the school’s athletics Hall of Honor in 1987.

After Michigan, Derricott worked as a pharmacist in Detroit until 1954 when he entered the School of Dentistry at UM. Following his graduation in 1958, he was in private practice in Detroit until 1962, when he entered the United States Air Force Dental Service as a Captain. In 1965 he was assigned as a senior dental officer for the 2nd Air Division in South Vietnam. After a 13-month tour, he was promoted to Major and awarded the Air Force Commendation and Bronze Star medals.

Derricott returned to the U.S. in 1966 and three years later, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He would become a Colonel in 1974 and five years later was named Command Dental Surgeon for the United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. He was awarded the Legion of Merit five years later. He retired from the Air Force in July 1985.

Upon retirement from his 26-year military career, Derricott became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the University of Texas Dental School in San Antonio until August 2002.

He is survived by his wife, Jeanne, and son, Robert.