H. Lee Prather

Who was H. Lee Prather?

Henry Lee Prather was an American football and basketball coach. He served as the head football coach at the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute for one season in 1912, compiling a record of 3–4. He is best known, however, for his tenures as the head football and men's basketball coach at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Prather coached the Demons' football team between 1913 and 1917, and again from 1919 through 1933. The 1918 season was canceled because of World War I. In 20 seasons as coach at NSU, Prather compiled an overall record of 79–51–14. Including his one season at SLII, his overall football record was 82–55–14.

As the head basketball coach at NSU, Prather's tenure was very interrupted. He was the on-again, off-again coach seven different times. Basketball had not quite become as established as a sport as football in the United States, so he alternated many of the years with having no program at all. In his 35 total years as the school's coach, Prather accumulated an overall record of 473–169. He stepped down in 1950 to become Northwestern State University's president in 1951. He is still the all-time leader in victories for men's basketball by more than 300 wins to the second closest coach, Red Thomas, who compiled 138 between 1950 and 1957.