University of Minnesota Athletics
Dwight Reed - M Club Hall of Fame
Dwight T. Reed
Football, 1935-37
HOF Class of 2005
A great blocking end, Dwight Reed was an all-around athlete.
Reed played on Minnesota’s 1935 and 1936 National Championship football teams and its 1935 and 1937 Big Ten Conference Champion teams. During his three years at Minnesota, the football program compiled a 21-3 record.
Reed played during a time of national racial prejudice. In 1935, Tulane University refused to play in U of M’s homecoming game if the African American Reed played. He spent the game in the press box, and the U of M took southern schools off future schedules.
Reed was also a light-heavyweight intramural boxing champion and played semi-pro basketball for the Galloping Gophers.
After Army service during World War II, in a 44-year career Reed coached every sport at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO, producing 93 All-Americans and numerous conference and NCAA individual champions.
He posted a 135-75-6 football record over 23 years and placed more than a half dozen professional football players in the NFL and the Canadian Football League.
His 1975 track and field team placed third at the NCAA Championships. Lincoln University named its football stadium and track in his honor in 1985, the year he was inducted into the Drake Relays Coaches Hall of Fame.