Gene Derricotte
| No. 41 | |
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Derricotte from 1948 team portrait
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| Date of birth | June 14, 1926 |
|---|---|
| Place of birth | Fostoria, Ohio |
| Career information | |
| Position(s) | HB/PR/KR |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) |
| Weight | 178 lb (81 kg) |
| College | Michigan |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Honors |
Michigan All-time Records |
Michigan All-time Records
Single-season punt return average (1947-)
Single-season punt return TDs (1947-)
Career punt return TDs (1947-)
Single-season interceptions (1946-1949)
Career interceptions (1948-1949)
Big Ten All-time Records
Eugene "Gene" Derricotte (born June 14, 1926) is a former American football player who played with the University of Michigan Wolverines from 1944 to 1948. He was one of the University's first African American athletes in the era when NCAA Division I college football was beginning to integrate. Derricotte established school records that still stand as a punt returner for the Michigan Wolverines football team. He also established several short-lived school interceptions records. Derricotte also served as a Tuskegee Airman and later had a successful career in dentistry while continuing to serve in the military.
Derricotte was born in Fostoria, Ohio on June 14, 1926, and he grew up in Defiance, Ohio, where his father Clarence Cobb Derricotte ran a shoe repair business. In addition to Eugene, Bessie M. Anderson and Clarence Derricotte had two other sons, Bruce (b. June 22, 1928) and Raymond. Gene married Jeanne E. Hagans and had a son Robert. Years later, Gene Derricotte would tell a reporter friend of his that he always wondered about his ancestry. He knew his name was French, but he was not able to find out much more about his roots. One thing he must have known was that despite living under segregation, other members of the Derricotte family had distinguished themselves as educated professionals. A black newspaper, the Philadelphia Tribune, did a tribute to the family in November 1944, mentioning that Eugene's father was a veteran of World War I where he fought in France before returning to Defiance to open his business, marry and raise a family. Eugene had an uncle (J. Flipper Derricotte) who was an attorney in Washington DC, and an aunt Juliette who had been a dean at Fisk College in Nashville TN before dying tragically after an automobile accident, when the nearby white hospital refused to admit her. (Jason, 1944)
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