Willis Casey (2018) - NC State Athletic Hall of Fame

Willis Casey

Records

General Information

In addition to being a successful swimming coach, Casey served as the only assistant athletics director to Roy Clogston for nearly 16 years from 1952-69
Manager of all 12 Dixie Classics and 19 consecutive Southern Conference and ACC Tournaments, all at Reynolds Coliseum
In nearly 30 years as athletics director, employed almost 150 coaches, and never fired one during his tenure
Among the coaches he hired during his tenure: Lou Holtz, Kay Yow, Richard Sykes, Rollie Geiger, Bo Rein, Jim Valvano, Dick Sheridan, Don Easterling, Bob Guzzo, Ray Tanner, Mark Stevenson
In hiring Yow to be the head coach of three women's sports and as an administrator of women's athletics, Casey was responsible for starting and growing women's athletics at NC State
Inherited a departmental budget of $700,000 that was $100,000 in debt at the time he was hired in 1969, and made it profitable and increased the budget to $7 million by 1986
Despite a small budget, paid off the bond on Carter-Finley Stadium some 28 years early, allowing NC state to have a broad athletics program
Powerful chair of the NCAA Committee on men's basketball, he helped shepherd several important rules changes during the 1970s, including the expansion of the NCAA Tournament to more than one team per conference, freshmen eligibility, and the return of the slam dunk
Chairman of the ACC television committee that broke ground in negotiating syndication rights for all league members
Born: 1920; Died: 1992