Swarthmore College Athletics

Ruff Herndon was a beloved member of the Garnet family for a remarkable 62 years. Herndon, an African-American man raised in Richmond, Virginia, just after the Reconstruction Era and during the height of Jim Crow segregation, became Swarthmore’s athletic trainer in 1904, nearly 40 years before the first black students were admitted to Swarthmore. Four Swarthmore presidents and 11 athletic directors came and went during Herndon’s time at Swarthmore.

Herndon held the record for the longest tenure as an athletic trainer at one institution. He received Swarthmore's John Nason Award for someone who contributed far beyond the requirements of the job. The Centennial edition of Swarthmore's Halcyon yearbook was dedicated to him, and he also received the National Athletic Trainers Association Award in 1965.

A collection of letters to Herndon from his retirement celebration in 1966 painted a portrait of a man admired by so many and known as a man of “decency, dignity and intelligence.” Former Swarthmore president Courtney Smith said that Herndon was "one of the noblest men any of us here have ever known."

Herndon passed away in 1971.