BATON ROUGE – Former LSU assistant football coach Otis Washington passed away Friday morning (May 24) at the age of 80.
Washington, a highly successful prep coach in New Orleans and also the former head coach of the Southern Jaguars, was the first head African-American assistant coach at LSU. He was hired by Bo Rein, who was named the head coach at LSU shortly after the 1979 football season concluded.
Rein never coached a game at LSU as he was killed in a tragic plane crash in January 1980. Jerry Stovall took over as head coach and Washington coached the offensive line during the 1980 season before accepting the head coaching job at Southern, a position he held for six seasons.