Joe Echols Explained

Joseph G. Echols (March 23, 1917 – March 28, 1977)^[1] was an American football coach, college athletics administrator, and Negro league baseball player.

Early life and baseball career

Raised in Englewood, New Jersey, Echols played prep football at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood.^[2] In 1939, Echols played for the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League.^[3]

Echols served as the head football coach at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia from 1950 to 1954 and at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia from 1955 to 1960. The home basketball arena on Norfolk State's campus is named Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall in his honor.^[4]

Echols died at the age of 60, on March 28, 1977.^[5] ^[6]

Web site: Joseph Echols. Fold3. April 13, 2020.
Borzi, Pat. "A Touch of Lombardi in Norfolk State’s Past", The New York Times, March 18, 2012. Accessed December 17, 2019. "The Norfolk State basketball arena, Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall, is named for the former Norfolk State coach and athletic director who was a native of Englewood, N.J. Echols played various sports at St. Cecelia’s High School in Englewood, and he briefly played baseball for the Newark Eagles in the Negro leagues. He graduated from St. Cecelia’s a few years before an energetic young coach, Vince Lombardi, took over the football team, but they became friends."
Web site: Joe Echols. Baseball-Reference. December 14, 2019.
Web site: Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall. Norfolk State Spartans. December 14, 2019.
News: . Services Planned for Joe Echols 60 . . . April 7, 1977 . C8 . December 17, 2019 . .
News: Nunn Jr. . William . Death of Norfolk State's Joe Echols shocks friends . . . April 23, 1977 . 9 . December 17, 2019 . .