About Sylvester Croom
Sylvester Croom Jr. is an American former football player and coach. He was the head coach at Mississippi State University from 2004 to 2008, and the first African American head football coach in the Southeastern Conference. His father, Sylvester Croom Sr., was himself an All-American football player at Alabama A&M, later the team chaplain at the University of Alabama, and has been recognized by that school as one of the state's 40 pioneers of civil rights. After his time at Mississippi State, Croom Jr. served as running backs coach for three teams in the National Football League (NFL). When Croom was hired at Mississippi State, he inherited a program that was riddled with NCAA sanctions and had not won consistently since the 1990s. Not just that, but Croom became the first African American in Southeastern Conference history to be given a chance to head coach a football team. After the 2007 season, during which his team won eight games, including the Liberty Bowl, Croom garnered Coach of the Year awards from three organizations.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.