Les Robinson to Receive SCAHOF’s Bobby Richardson Sportsmanship Award

Former Citadel Director of Athletics and Basketball Coach Les Robinson will be honored with the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame’s annual Bobby Richardson Sportsmanship Award during the 51st Annual Banquet on May 23 in Columbia.

The award, which began in 2005, is named for Sumter native and SCAHOF inductee Bobby Richardson, who stood out as the reliable second baseman on star-studded New York Yankees teams in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
 
A virtual Who’s Who in intercollegiate athletics, Robinson is the only person in NCAA history to serve as head basketball coach and director of athletics at three Division I institutions having worked at The Citadel, East Tennessee State and North Carolina State. 

Robinson spent six years serving on the prestigious NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, one of the NCAA’s most influential groups. The committee is responsible for site selection for each round of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championships.  Additionally, it chooses the at-large teams that compete in the field, and makes many important decisions regarding the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  He remains involved as a member of the NIT Selection Committee.

He served as the Bulldogs’ basketball coach from 1974-85, having spent the five previous seasons as an assistant coach, and became The Citadel’s AD on Sept. 1, 2000.  He retired on June 30, 2008, and continues to live in the Charleston area.

He is the third individual in the past four years with Citadel ties to receive the honor and follows Marc Buoniconti (2008) and Andre Roberts (2009).