Mike Lude

Milo Ralph Lude (June 30, 1922 – March 14, 2024) was an American college football and baseball coach who became a college athletics administrator. He played football and baseball at Hillsdale College, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He served as the head coach at Colorado State University from 1962 to 1969, compiling a record of 29–51–1. Lude was the head baseball coach at Hillsdale College from 1948 to 1949 and at the University of Maine from 1950 to 1951. He served as the athletic director at Kent State University (1970–1976), the University of Washington (1976–1991), and Auburn University (1992–1994).

As athletic director at Kent State, Lude offered Don James his first head coaching job in 1971; the two later worked together for fifteen years at Washington.

Lude went skydiving for the first time at the age of 93. In 2021, Lude stated that he planned to do the same for his 100th birthday.^[3] He died in Tucson, Arizona, on March 14, 2024, at the age of 101.^[4]