Clifton E. Hubbard Jr.

TO LIVESTREAM:   https://youtu.be/wJxRf6JOG4A

The family asks that in lieu of flowers that donations be made to a memorial scholarship fund in honor of Clifton Hubbard.Electronic donations can be made via https://link.clover.com/urlshortener/KsLrdYChecks should be made out to THE CAMILLA AND ZACK HUBERT FOUNDATION, INC with memo line memorial scholarship in honor of Clifton E. Hubbard Jr. and mailed to Leola Hubbard 920 Pershing Rd Penllyn, PA 19422. 

OBITUARY

Clifton Edward Hubbard, Jr. was born on February 6th, 1938 to Clifton Edward Hubbard, Sr. and Edna Douthard Hubbard in Atlanta, Georgia. While he was still young, the family moved to Philadelphia and welcomed Clifton’s sister Leola. Clifton’s childhood was spent in the Tioga-Nicetown area of North Philadelphia. The family had descended from enslaved people who eventually went on to be entrepreneurs and pioneers in education. This love of education was instilled in Clifton at a young age. A product of the Philadelphia public school system, Clifton graduated from Northeast High School in 1956 and went on to attend Temple University where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education. He later also obtained a Master’s degree in Education from Temple University. As a child and throughout his life, Clifton was an accomplished athlete, excelling in baseball, football, tennis and track and field. He played baseball and football throughout high school and continued his athletic career in college. His baseball skills attracted scouting from the Philadelphia Phillies and he considered a career in professional baseball, but he, the scout, and his parents ultimately agreed that a college education was the wiser choice for a young black man during this time in our nation’s history. After graduation, Clifton gravitated to teaching and took his first teaching assignment in 1960 at Wanamaker Junior High School in Philadelphia where he taught and coached soccer, swimming, and track. Eventually, he realized that he wanted to coach and teach at a higher level so he applied for teaching and coaching jobs and landed a job at Roxborough Senior High School in 1966; and later was hired as head baseball and head football coach. He went on to teach physical education and health while coaching football, baseball and several other sports for 36 years at Roxborough, impacting the lives of thousands of Philadelphia children throughout his career. During his impressive coaching career, he garnered many wins and championships, including over 400 wins for his baseball team which, to this day, is one of the winningest records ever seen in the city. In addition to coaching at Roxborough he also later became Physical Education Department head and Athletic Director. His impressive coaching career and his dedication to sports in the Philadelphia Public School System eventually earned him admission to the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Sports Halls of Fame. Clifton “retired” from his positions at Roxborough in 2002 only to be enticed by the Philadelphia School District Superintendent’s Office to become the Athletic Director for the entire district. He spent 4 years at this post, continuing his service to high school athletics citywide, overseeing budgets and was instrumental in orchestrating the schools’ transition to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), the state governing body for youth athletics. Not one to retire and nearly 70 years old at the time, he was then asked to start a new football program at Samuel Fels High School in Northeast Philadelphia. Not only did he start the football program, he became the first head coach for 2 seasons and then stayed on for several more seasons as the defensive coordinator, working well into his late 70s. He remained involved in Philadelphia high school sports up until recently, advising, helping to coordinate the Carpenter Cup (a high school baseball collaboration with the Philadelphia Phillies), even continuing to be active as his health declined earlier this year. Clifton’s dedication to high school education and sports was only matched by his devotion as a father and family man. Clifton met his future wife Gladys Blackwell through a mutual friend in Philadelphia while she was a rotating nursing student from Tuskegee Institute. They were married in Gladys’ hometown of Mobile, Alabama on July 3, 1965. They eventually moved to King of Prussia, PA and were blessed with four children: Bryan, Alysia, Derrick Clifton, and Drew. Tragically, Derrick was born prematurely and died shortly after his birth in 1974. With Gladys, Clifton created a loving home and family life that saw his three children grow to become successful in their educational and career pursuits and build loving families of their own. From an early age, Clifton was active in the church. As a child, he attended Holsey Temple CME church in Philadelphia. At the urging of neighborhood friends, he joined the Tioga United Methodist Church which he attended for many years; eventually becoming the Chair of the Finance Committee, a position he faithfully served in for many years. More recently, Clifton and Gladys wanted a church home that was closer to their home in King of Prussia so they joined the St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Wayne. Early this year, they moved to Texas to live with their daughter Alysia. They remained steadfast members of St. Matthew’s, attending services virtually. Clifton, not one to let his leadership and service skills become rusty, was also an active member of the Board of Ordained Ministry for the United Methodist Church and he diligently attended meetings virtually until his passing. Clifton leaves behind Gladys, his wife of 57 years, his three children Bryan (Kerri), Alysia (Henry Green, Jr.), and Drew (Faith), his grandchildren Kyle, Blake, and Kianna (Bryan); Jazmyn (Alysia); and Colton and Emerson (Drew). He also leaves behind his loving sister Leola; along with a multitude of extended family, friends, colleagues and former students, all who will remember him for his patience, quiet strength, dedication to his community, humanity, and his unwavering love commitment for God. He has gifted us all with a significant legacy of love and service to his family, his friends, his former students and athletes and the city of Philadelphia. In his own words from an interview in The Northeast Times he said: “I always tell people that if you’re around long enough and get involved in enough things to help people, then they’ll remember you. I don’t know how important it is to have a legacy; it’s probably more important that people like that I did something to help them out.”