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Jackson State names Robert Braddy new
Athletic Director
February 3, 2006
JACKSON, Miss. – Jackson State University had selected
longtime former baseball coach Robert Braddy to be its next athletic
director. The announcement was made by President Ronald Mason
Jr. Braddy, who was recently inducted into
the SWAC Hall of Fame, served as the Tigers’ baseball coach
for 28 years. A 1964 JSU graduate, Braddy also served as the
university’s
interim athletics director in 2000.
“We are excited about the hiring of Coach Braddy,” said
Mason. “We have built our facilities, enhanced our academic
support and fully funded all of our scholarships. But one piece
was missing, and that was to reconnect athletics with the winning
tradition of Jackson State University. No one is better suited
to make that connection than Coach Robert Braddy.”
Braddy is the winningest baseball coach in SWAC history with
a 823-555-3 career record. Between 1973 and 2001, his teams won
12 SWAC championships, more than any other coach in league history.
He guided the Tigers to three NCAA tournament appearances, two
NCAA play-in games and four NAIA tournaments. Braddy was named
SWAC Coach-of-the-Year nine times.
“It’s a dream job,” said Braddy, the first
African-American to be inducted into the American Baseball College
Association Hall of Fame in 2003. “There’s a lot
of work to be done, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.
We’re going to depend on alumni and friends of the university,
as well as the business community. My goal is to bring Jackson
State back to national prominence.”
Braddy’s first conference title came during his first season
as JSU’s head coach. His team won back-to-back titles in
1977 and 1978, and again in 1989 and 1990. He also won three
consecutive SWAC titles from 1993-95. His other league championships
came in 1980, 1982, 1986 and 2000.
Since Braddy’s first season at JSU, 52 of his players have
reached the professional ranks, including Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd,
Marvin Freeman, Wes Chamberlain, David Clark and Curtis Ford.
He produced two first round draft choices in Clark, an outfielder,
(1983) and pitcher/outfielder Earl Sanders (1986).
Before joining the Tiger athletics staff, Braddy coached at McLaurin
High in Florence, Miss., where his team compiled a 64-14 record
and won the Highland Conference championship four of the six
years he coached. He spent one year as Florence High's coach.
Braddy and his wife, Diane, have two children: Robert, Jr. and
Artimese Anita and two grandchildren, Jasmine, 10, and Marita,
6.
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