SSU goes for experience in AD hire

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. His hiring comes five months after SSU hired its first white football head coach, 39-year-old Robby Wells.

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