Raymond Sindo Blanco (August 16, 1935 – November 19, 2022)[1][2] was an American academic administrator and football coach who served as the First Gentleman of Louisiana from 2004 to 2008 during the gubernatorial tenure of his wife, then Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco.
Blanco, the first man to serve as First Gentleman of Louisiana, was also nicknamed "First Coach" during his tenure in the position.
[5] In football, Blanco served as assistant coach at Kirwin High School in Galveston, Texas, and head coach at Catholic High School in New Iberia, Louisiana, between 1958 and 1962.
From the fall of 1982 on, Mr. Blanco served in the capacity of Vice President for Student Affairs.
Blanco's transition from football coach to Dean of Men came as a result of the university's need to find an administrator capable of understanding and quelling the severe student unrest which plagued USL (and universities around the country) in the late 1960s and early 1970s.