Vanover

Marvin Vanover announces retirement

Marvin Vanover, commissioner of the Peach Belt Conference and former athletic director at ASU, has announced his intention to retire at the end of this academic year. The announcement was made at a news conference on July 27.

Mr. Vanover is the first and only individual to serve as commissioner of the athletic conference. He accepted the position on an interim basis when the conference was created in 1990, after having retired from then-Augusta College.

He joined the college as an assistant professor of physical education in 1963 and retired in 1988. Mr. Vanover served as chair of the Department of Physical Education and as the institution’s first full-time athletic director and men’s head basketball coach. He was also the golf, tennis, and cross country coach.

Coach Vanover led the Jaguars for 24 years, including 18 consecutive winning seasons in men’s basketball and two straight National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics District 25 championships in 1970 and 1971. He received commendations from the city’s mayor, the governor, and the state senate, with February 14, 1970, being declared Marvin Vanover Day

Several times in his coaching career he was named Coach of the Year for both the South Atlantic Conference and the NCAA. Coach Vanover was the first college basketball coach in the state of Georgia to racially integrate his team.

In November 2003, the roadway leading to the Christenberry Field House was named Vanover Drive in honor of the former athletic director.

Clint Bryant, who succeeded Vanover as coach and athletic director, called Commissioner Vanover a “trailblazer and pioneer.”

In the 16 years that Mr. Vanover served as commissioner, the Peach Belt Conference has had 24 national championships as well as 22 finalists and more than 300 Division II Alll-Americans.

August 2006
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