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Published on: 5/21/2008
Last Visited: 5/21/2008
Savannah State University new athletic director Bart Bellairs speaks to members of the faculty and the media at a press conference announcing his new position. (John Carrington/Savannah Morning News) (Photo: John Carrington)
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Bart Bellairs, left, speaks to SSU President Earl Yarbrough following a press conference announcing his new position as athletic director. (John Carrington/Savannah Morning News) (Photo: John Carrington)
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Bart Bellairs leaving VMI post to lead athletic department
(Scroll down to see video of new SSU Athletic Director Bart Bellairs.)
Within seconds of being introduced as Savannah State University's athletic director, Bart Bellairs on Tuesday used words like "gold mine" and "sleeping giant" to describe Savannah's only NCAA Division I school.
He'll no doubt use those terms frequently in his quest to help SSU increase revenue, join a conference and achieve success, both athletically and academically.
Bellairs will begin at SSU on June 1.
Bellairs, 51, has spent the past three years as Virginia Military Institute's senior associate athletic director.He was instrumental in tripling revenue during his first two years at the Lexington, Va., school, which competes in the Big South Conference.
Bellairs is the first white AD at SSU, a historically black university that began playing sports in 1915.
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"I'm just myself," Bellairs said of becoming SSU's first white AD."I came here and I'm going to be myself.I think it's about relationships.And that will work for me."
Bellairs will be paid $110,000 annually, an increase from the $75, 563 that Robert "Tony" O'Neal received as AD during the 2005-06 fiscal year.
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SSU chose Bellairs out of 32 applicants to become the Tigers' 15th AD.
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Jackson was among several administrators, coaches, staff and faculty who showed their support of Bellairs and his wife, Jacki, during a 2 p.m. press conference at Tiger Arena.
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Bellairs was VMI's men's basketball head coach from 1994 until 2005, and was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year in 1995.
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As VMI's senior associate AD, Bellairs worked with the VMI Keydet Club, an alumni athletic donor organization, to raise over $3 million in a single year to support both scholarships and the operating budget.SSU's athletic department budget is just over $2 million, well below the majority of Division I schools.
"This is a gold mine," Bellairs said of SSU."It's a sleeping giant.The best thing you've got going here is the vision and the people.You can build buildings and all that, but if you've got vision, that's what it's all about."
Bellairs, the nephew of legendary former Georgia Tech athletic director, Homer Rice, said one of his goals is to have SSU embraced by Savannah the way UGA is embraced in Athens, and Georgia Southern is loved in Statesboro.
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"It's not been done (at SSU)," Bellairs said.