PHOTO COURTESY OF MARYLAND EASTERN SHORE ATHLETICS

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) – The U.S. Coast Guard Academy has named a field house after the school’s first African-American coach.

The facility, part of Roland Hall gymnasium, has been named the Dr. Hallie Gregory Field House.

Gregory, a Rockford, Illinois-native, began teaching and coaching at the academy in 1971. He became the head track coach in 1980, head basketball coach in 1984 and later served as an assistant athletic director.

He was inducted into the Coast Guard Academy Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.

Gregory was also the first African-American teacher at Guilford High School in Rockford and the first African-American coach at Moorhead State College in Moorhead, Minnesota.

He died in 2017.