14-Jun-1926 to __________
Dr. Eugene “Gene” Derricotte, grew up in Defiance, Ohio. He entered the University of Michigan in 1944, but was drafted into the Army in December 1944 and shipped to Fort Bragg, North Carolina as an Artillery Cannoneer. Midway through training, he was told of the pilot training program at Tuskegee he volunteered, and graduated in Class 46-B in May 1946.
With the war over, Lieutenant Derricotte was discharged and returned to Michigan. He was the first African-American to play in the backfield for the University of Michigan football team. In 1950, he earned his Pharmacy degree and ended four years of varsity football to include winning the 1948 Rose Bowl.
After a second degree in Dentistry in 1958, he returned to the military, serving in Vietnam, as well as South Dakota, Massachusetts, Texas, Hawaii, Virginia, Illinois and the Air Force Academy before his retirement in 1985. Dr. Derricotte then relocated to San Antonio, starting another career at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) until his second retirement in 2000. Since then, Dr. Derricotte and his wife Jeanne, enjoy occasional golf, traveling and their grandson.