Bill D'Andrea to be named new AD for in-state school

by Tony Crumpton - Assoc. Editor - Thu Apr 30 20:25:37 GMT-04:00 2015

Bill D'Andrea named AU Director of Athletics. pic.twitter.com/EBLibfie7m
— Anderson Trojans (@autrojans) May 1, 2015

Former Clemson executive senior associate AD for IPTAY external affairs Bill D'Andrea will be announced as the new athletic director at Anderson University on Friday according to multiple reports.

D'Andrea had worked for Clemson for 30+ years in various capacities until his retirement in 2014.

There will be a news conference at 10:30 a.m. in the morning according to Anderson University's director of communications Barry Ray.

Official Clemson Bio: Bill D'Andrea has had a profound effect on the Clemson athletic department in particular, and the entire University in general in his 22 years as a full-time employee and his 25 years overall at Clemson. He has helped make Clemson one of the top all-around programs in the nation through his work as a football coach, director of student-athlete academic services in Vickery Hall and as the Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director supervising the athletic department's scholarship fund-raising instrument, IPTAY. As you can see by his resume below, he has succeeded at a high level in every task he has been assigned.

D'Andrea began his association with Clemson as a graduate assistant football coach under Danny Ford in 1983 and 1984. The Tigers won 16 games in those two seasons, including a 9-1-1 campaign in 1983 when Clemson finished with a #11 final ranking. D'Andrea moved on to Southern Mississippi for the 1985 season, his first year as a full-time assistant coach.

In 1986, Ford had an opening on his coaching staff and D'Andrea received a call to return to Clemson after just one season in Mississippi. He became an assistant coach, working in tandem with Larry Van Der Heyden, who had been his position coach as a player at Indiana State in the 1970s.

D'Andrea helped the Tigers to three consecutive ACC Championships from 1986-88, tying a league record for consecutive league titles at the time. The 1989 team did not win the ACC title, but finished with a 10-2 record and a top 10 national ranking. In the four years D'Andrea served as an assistant coach, Clemson posted a 38-8-2 record, won four bowl games (wins over Stanford, Penn State, Oklahoma and West Virginia) and finished in the top 20 of both final polls every year.

D'Andrea coached many outstanding players, including two-time first-team All-American Stacy Long. Long was a first-team All-American according to Sporting News in 1989 as a junior, then went on to become the only offensive lineman in Clemson history to be a finalist for the Outland Trophy. He was inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.

D'Andrea became the first director of Vickery Hall, Clemson's student-athlete enrichment facility, in 1991. He was at the center of a ground-breaking aspect of athletic administration, as Vickery Hall was the first self standing facility dedicated to student-athlete enrichment in the nation. When the building opened in 1991, the combined GPA of the Clemson athletic teams was 2.35. In 2002, when D'Andrea left his directorship after 11 years, the combined GPA of the school's athletic programs was 2.85. During one stretch, the overall student-athlete grade point averages improved 14 consecutive semesters. The program was named one of the top programs of its kind in the nation by NACDA in September of 1999.

D'Andrea obviously set a firm foundation for the student-athlete enrichment program, as Clemson student-athletes posted a record 2.97 GPA in the spring of 2009. Records have continued to be set in terms of academic honor roll students, and teams with over a 3.0 GPA.

Named a senior associate athletic director in 2002, D'Andrea now supervises all external affairs of the athletic department. Now in his eighth year in that position, D'Andrea oversees all of Clemson`s fund-raising activities (IPTAY), promotions, marketing, tickets, and sports information. He reports directly to Athletic Director Dr. Terry Don Phillips.

Much of his daily responsibilities have been consumed by the capital campaign that will provide the financial backing of the West Endzone project at Memorial Stadium. In July, 2007, the department proudly announced that the $27 million goal for the first stage of the West Endzone Campaign had been realized. Significant progress has also been made towards the financial goals for Phase II of the West Endzone Project, and construction concluded in July 2009.

Over his five years organizing Clemson's fund-raising activities, annual donations to IPTAY have risen from $9 million to a record $21 million in 2009. A record was also established in 2007 for the number of donors, as over 16,000 people are now adult members of IPTAY. Clemson has also sold a record number of season tickets for the 2008 season, as over 58,500 season tickets were sold by the end of July.

He has been very active in administration on the Atlantic Coast Conference level and currently serves on the ACC's Sportsmanship Committee.

D'Andrea, a Morgan, PA native, received his undergraduate degree in criminal justice from Indiana State in 1973. He was a member of the Sycamore football team as an offensive lineman for four years and. He earned a master's degree from East Carolina in 1975.

D'Andrea and his wife Lee reside in Central, SC. Lee is the Superintendent of Public Schools for Anderson School District 4.