Former A&M University Soccer Coach Salah Yousif, dies in Ethiopia

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Salah Yousif, hired at Alabama A&M as an economics professor but later to become coach of two national championship soccer teams, has died in his native Ethiopia. Yousif, 77, was a college professor in Ethiopia at the time of his death. Sources said he died of an apparent heart attack on campus.

Yousif, who seven months ago suffered the loss of a son, died June 27, according to former co-workers at Alabama A&M.

Yousif won 238 games in 21 seasons as the A&M soccer coach and 50 in four seasons at soccer coach at Howard.

His was a turbulent career at A&M, where he arrived in 1976 to teach. Noticing many foreign students on campus, he convinced A&M officials to start a soccer team and track coach Joe Henderson gave him $25 to help purchase jerseys. Within a year, A&M won the NCAA Division II national title. Alabama A&M won two championships and was twice runner-up in five years, losing only four games in from 1977-80. Read more