MARSHALL — Haywood Boston, a former basketball player for the Mustangs and a member of the class of 1978, will be this year’s Southwest Minnesota State University commencement speaker.

According to a SMSU press release, Boston looks forward to bringing his coaching philosophy and life lessons to the Class of 2023 during the commencement ceremony on May 6 at 10 a.m. in the R/A Facility.

A North Carolina native, Haywood Boston, Jr. came to Southwest to play basketball for the Mustangs. His former coach at the two-year College of the Albermarle — Dale Honeck — had been hired as the head coach and recruited Boston to move halfway across the country to Marshall. Boston joined teammates Sam Leggett, Carl Harris, Peter James, Willie Bond, and Garry Mercer from the same junior college. Boston found Marshall to be welcoming and not unfamiliar to him.

“I was used to living in a rural area. Coach Honeck recruited kids who grew up in small towns knowing we could adjust pretty quickly,” said Boston in the release. “The experience was great. People welcomed us into their homes. I didn’t feel like a stranger at all.” Boston played basketball for the Mustangs from 1975-77.

“The community was the main thing; it was amazing, and is amazing still,” he said. “Turns out it [coming to Marshall] was the best decision I ever made.”

Boston met his wife at Southwest. He is married to Jean (Jorgensen), 1980 alumna, Marshall native, and daughter of Dick Jorgensen, a lifelong friend of the University.

“I wouldn’t be where I am without Jean,” Boston said. “And my father-in-law, Dick was a great mentor to me. He embraced me and taught me at the same time. To this day, I still miss him.”

He graduated from SMSU with his degree in health and physical education in 1978.

His first job out of college was teaching and coaching in his home state of North Carolina at John Wilkinson High School. He led his first girls’ basketball team to win six games in his first year, 19 games in his second year, and the state title in his third year.

He later moved to a regional management position with the Burger King corporation, overseeing 15 stores on the East Coast.

He returned to Minnesota for graduate school to study sports psychology and serve as an assistant coach at Minnesota State–Mankato.

He applied at Hoover High in Des Moines, Iowa. He remembered Bobby Sandquist got the job they both applied for, but he soon received a call from Sandquist to join him at Hoover as an assistant. They coached together for more than 20 years, in what Boston called “the best coaching tandem in the state.”

After taking some time off for health reasons, Boston made the move to North High School in Des Moines. An inner-city school district that hadn’t had a winning season since 1983.

“People told me ‘You’re such a good coach. Why do you want to go there?’ ” he recalled. “If I am a good coach, then this is where I can make an impact. I didn’t start by talking about winning or even basketball.”

He started by coaching them on discipline, character, being good kids, and contributing to society.

Boston went on to take the North High School girls’ basketball team from years below .500 to three winning seasons in a row, including an 18-3 record and conference title in the 2022-23 season.