GeOrGe F. “buddy” sasser atHletIC Hall OF Fame
Coastal Carolina University’s Athletic Hall of Fame is named in honor of former athletic director George F. “Buddy” Sasser. “It is a fitting tribute to Buddy that his name should be permanently linked with the athletic department’s Athletic Hall of Fame,” said former CCU President Ronald Ingle. “Buddy embodies the highest qualities associated with college athletics — integrity, leadership, and scholarship.” The naming of the Athletic Hall of Fame was part of a series of events leading up to Coastal Carolina University’s 50th-anniversary festivities in 2004. Sasser was inducted in 2003, along with three other Coastal Carolina athletic administrators and student-athletes, in the inaugural class of the Big South Conference Hall of Fame. Sasser served as the Big South commissioner from 1989-1996 and had two stints as Coastal Carolina director of athletics (1986-1989 and 1996-1999). While Big South commissioner, Sasser was responsible for increasing membership, gaining automatic bids to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and adding basketball television exposure for the League.
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The Commissioner’s Cup award, which goes to the institution with the best overall athletic performance for that year, was renamed the Sasser Cup in his honor. He served on the University’s Football Advisory Committee and on the capital campaign steering committee for Coastal Carolina’s Brooks Stadium. A native of Conway, Sasser served as athletic director and head football coach at Conway High School from 1963 to 1970, leading the Tigers to a 66-17-5 record. He was an assistant football coach and assistant athletic director at Appalachian State University from 1972 until 1977 and was athletic director and head football coach from 1977 until 1982 at Wofford College, where he was named 1982 Kodak Coach of the Year for the college division. He joined East Tennessee State in 1982 as head football coach and was named athletic director in 1985. Sasser was Coastal Carolina University’s director of athletics from 1986 until 1989 when he accepted the position of commissioner of the Big South Conference. He returned to the University as athletic director in 1996 and retired in 1999. For his distinguished career in athletics, Sasser was inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.
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