Otis Washington is recognized as one of the greatest high school football coaches in Louisiana history due to a stunning stretch of 11 years at St. Augustine High School (1969-79) when he compiled a record of 113-17-1 with three state championships (1975, 1978, 1979) in the state’s highest classification. He posted a winning record in all 11 seasons while earning seven Catholic League titles and sending more than 120 players into the college football ranks.
 
"When somebody wins as much as he won, people usually don't like them because they win so much," said Ro Brown, a legendary New Orleans sportscaster. "He is the only person I know that won that much and people still liked. You won't hear anything bad about him from anyone. You just won't."
 
A native of Selma, Ala., Washington came to New Orleans on a scholarship to play football at Xavier University. He captained Xavier’s final intercollegiate football team in 1959 and earned All-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors as an offensive guard and linebacker. He also was a baseball standout, earning all-conference honors on the diamond as well.
 
After his graduation in 1961, he was hired at St. Augustine High School as a teacher and coach. He served eight years as an assistant coach, helping the team to three Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic and Literary Organization (LIALO) state championships. After integration, St. Aug joined the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) in 1967.
 
Washington took over the head coaching duties for the Purple Knights in 1969 and in his second season he led his team to a 9-1 record and a three-way tie for the Catholic League title with Holy Cross and Jesuit. Only two teams from each district were allowed to make the playoffs and a coin toss determined which two teams would go.
 
“That was a really good football team, and you should never think negative, but I just knew we were not going to win that coin toss," Washington said in a 2015 interview.
 
One of his players on that 1970 team was Burton Burns, who would go on to play at Nebraska. After his playing career, Burns became a prominent collegiate coach, including many years as Nick Saban’s recruiting coordinator at Alabama. “He supported all of us after we graduated from St. Aug,” said Burns. “Any success I've gotten in this world of coaching, I owe it to coach Wash. We were very prepared. We had the answers to the test.”
 
He was selected as the New Orleans States-Item Coach of the Year for his 1970 achievements.
 
In 1971, his third year as head coach, he directed St. Aug to the LHSAA state championship game, losing to Brother Martin in the Class 4A state final at Tad Gormley Stadium, 23-0. The following year, he was named Louisiana’s Class 4A Coach of the Year by the Louisiana Sportswriters Association.
 
In 1975, St. Augustine capped a 15-0 season – the only perfect season in school history – with a 35-13 victory at Covington for its first state championship.
 
“We weren’t saviors of the black community or anything like that,” Washington said in 2015. “We just went out and did a good job of playing football. And New Orleans, over the years, has seen that they can be proud of the things we did.”
 
Three years later, Washington had his Purple Knights back in the state title game – this time against Catholic League rival Jesuit. Due to the overwhelming interest in the game (St. Aug routinely drew 15,000-20,000 fans to its Tad Gormley Stadium games), the rivals moved the title match to the Louisiana Superdome and 44,000 fans turned out to witness St. Aug upend the Blue Jays, 13-7.
 
“I was a little apprehensive going into the game,” Washington said in an interview with WLAE. “Jesuit had a lot of tradition. We knew that if we beat Jesuit, then St. Aug would have ‘arrived.’”
 
The success of that game drew the attention of Superdome officials and the LHSAA. Beginning with the 1981 season, the Superdome became the home of the high school football state championships, a tradition which continues in 2024, despite some years with the games being played elsewhere.
 
Washington would add a second straight state title in 1979 as the Purple Knights overcame New Iberia at Cajun Field in Lafayette for the LHSAA championship.
 
“I always admired him because of how his teams played – with class, discipline and toughness,” said John Curtis coach JT Curtis. “I had a chance to coach with him in the All-Star Game in 1975 or 1976, and we maintained a relationship for years after. He was a great man and a great coach. His influence on St. Augustine and throughout the city was obvious and was there through the end on coaches, players and people like myself.”
 
Washington’s success on the prep level moved him to the college game as an assistant coach at LSU. He was one of the Tigers’ first Black football coaches, overseeing the offensive line on Jerry Stovall’s staff in 1980. The next year, Washington became head coach at Southern University, where he stayed for six years, posting a record of 35-30-1.
 
The highlight of a six-year stint at Southern (1981-86) was a 50-20 victory over Grambling in the 1982 Bayou Classic, also in the Superdome.
 
“He was a disciplinarian, a good friend, a good mentor,” said Eddie Flint, another New Orleans coaching legend who worked with Washington for many years. “The most important thing he brought was manhood. He believed in what he did, he believed in what he said, and he wanted the kids to be the same way. He was just a good man. A good husband and a good friend.”
 
Washington also served as executive director of the New Orleans Police Athletic League (after stints as an assistant coach at LSU and Tulane).
 
The venerable coach was a 2015 inductee into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and also is a member of the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame (2012), the Xavier University Hall of Fame (2022), the New Orleans Prep Hall of Fame and the St. Augustine Hall of Fame.
 
When Washington made it into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, he told The Times-Picayune, “People have talked to me about my past accomplishments,” he said. “But it has never ever been about me. I just went along for the ride and boy what a ride.”
 
Washington, who was born in 1939, died in 2019 at the age of 80.