Funeral Service Announced for Willie Fulton, Former Golden Lions Football Coach

Pine Bluff, AR.- The funeral services for former UAPB Golden Lions football coach Willie Fulton will be held in Cleveland, Mississippi.

Pamela Martin Seals Chapel (511 South Davis Avenue | Cleveland, MS 38732), will host visitation hours from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 8, 2025. The service will take place Sunday, March 9, 2025 at (Greater New Kindom Church) at 2:30 pm. The burial will take at Delta Heights Memorial Garden.

Willie Fulton led the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff football team to one of its best seasons ever in 1990 while the program was dealing with a controversy that led to a two-year shutdown.

“Coach Fulton was a disciple of Archie Cooley,” said Carl Whimper, sports information director at UAPB at the time. “He pretty much knew Coach Cooley’s entire offensive and defensive system. At one time, he was the defensive coordinator. He started off as defensive backs coach. He had been with Cooley so long, he really knew Cooley’s system.”

Fulton, who acted as head coach for eight games during the Golden Lions’ season and became interim athletic director at UAPB two decades later, has died, a UAPB athletic department spokesperson confirmed. Fulton’s age and cause of death were not immediately available.

Fulton, a defensive coordinator, led the Golden Lions for all but two games in 1990 after Cooley was suspended by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, according to Whimper. The NAIA, under which UAPB competed until joining NCAA Division I in 1997, was investigating the football program and eventually found that the Lions committed 41 player eligibility violations such as competing after eligibility or while not signed up for at least 24 credit hours in Cooley’s four seasons (1987-90) as head coach, according to United Press International.

UPI reported that UAPB was ordered to forfeit all games from 1987-89 and the first two games of 1990, although online records show UAPB finished 9-1 that season, a 16-12 loss to Southern University in the seventh game that year being the lone setback. (It was, at the time, the winningest season in school history, matched by Lee Hardman’s 1994 NAIA runners-up at 9-4 and surpassed by Monte Coleman’s 2012 Southwestern Athletic Conference champions at 10-2.)

Worse yet, the NAIA handed down the death penalty to UAPB, shutting down the program through 1992.

“Of course he was a defensive coach, but he had hands on everybody,” said Chris Robinson, UAPB’s current athletic director who was a scout-team quarterback and practiced against Fulton’s defense. “One thing I noticed about him was how he dressed, but he was also an accountant. That was an area I was interested in. He was always that stoic personality, quiet, but when he spoke, he made sure you knew what he wanted.”

Robinson said Fulton kept the team together amid the off-field challenges and earned lots of respect from other players.

“He said what needed to be said,” Robinson said. “A role model from a professional standpoint. When it was time to do different events, he stood out (with his dress). Ultimate business professional.”

Fulton was an HBCU All-American defensive back at archrival Mississippi Valley State University in the 1970s. He was honorable mention All-SWAC in 1976 and 1977 and made Mutual Black Sports Network’s All-America first team in 1978 before signing with the Oakland (now Las Vegas) Raiders as a free agent in 1979. Valley, which named Fulton one of its 100 Greatest Players of All Time, inducted him into its sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

Cooley, who died last April, hired Fulton as an assistant coach at Valley and eventually brought him to UAPB after his hire in December 1986, according to Whimper. Following the death penalty, Fulton remained at UAPB and taught in the school of business before returning to football as an assistant under Hardman.

Fulton was named UAPB’s interim athletic director in the 2010-11 school year after the departure of Skip Perkins. Fulton’s Facebook profile listed him as a principal broker/owner at Pine Bluff Realty Group LLC.

Go Forward CEO Ryan Watley, a UAPB wide receiver from 2004-08, recalled Fulton vouching for him to make the 90-man roster as a freshman when the latter was a defensive coordinator under then-Coach Mo Forte.

“First and foremost, Coach was a tough guy’s tough guy,” Watley said. “He instilled that you have to work hard. When I stepped on campus, he would come to summer workouts and he saw we were working really hard, and he vouched for me to make the big 90. I’m grateful for him and other coaches.”

Watley said he and other receivers enjoyed setting Fulton off if they were able to beat defensive backs in 1-on-1 drills.

“He was serious about what he did,” Watley said. “We didn’t play with him a lot, but when we did, we went as far we could go with him.”

Watley extended his condolences to Fulton’s family, as did Robinson.

“Just appreciate the opportunity I had to spend time with him,” Robinson said. “I had the opportunity to coach with him as well when I was coaching under coach Hardman. I always had a great deal of respect for him and his family. Appreciate the impact he had on my life.”