NORFOLK, Va. — The Norfolk Sports Club with honor Norfolk State University football coach Pete Adrian and former Spartans' coach and athletics director William “Dick” Price with two of its most prestigious awards at its annual jamboree on March 5 at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel.
Adrian has been chosen as the recipient of the club's J. Roy Rodman Memorial Award as the state of Virginia's most outstanding collegiate coach for 2007. Price, meanwhile, has been selected as the club's sixth Lifetime Achievement Award winner in the last 44 years.
Adrian guided the Spartans to an 8-3 record in 2007, the school's most wins since 1984. Under Adrian's guidance, NSU clinched the program's first winning record in the Division I era (since 1997) and won a program-best six MEAC games (6-2 record) after being picked to finish seventh in the preseason poll.
NSU also achieved the program's first-ever Division I FCS national ranking, reaching as high as No. 23, and set a school single-season attendance record for Dick Price Stadium, averaging 17,220 fans per game. In November, Adrian was named the 2007 MEAC Coach of the Year in voting by league head coaches. Adrian was also a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, given annually to the Division I FCS Coach of the Year.
Price, namesake of the school's 30,000-seat football stadium, is the winningest football coach in NSU history. The Spartans amassed a 61-42-4 record (.589) in his 10 seasons as coach (1974-83) and won three CIAA championships (1974-76). Price also coached the NSU men's track team to two NCAA Division II national titles, in 1973 and 1974 (tie). He was two-time Division II national track and field coach of the year.
Price, who was the Norfolk Sports Club's president in 2003, also served as NSU's athletics director from 1989-99. Past Lifetime Achievement Award winners include Hall of Fame golfer Curtis Strange, Washington Redskins defensive back Darrell Green, Hall of Fame college basketball coach Charles “Lefty” Driesell, NASCAR driver Ricky Rudd, and Hampton Roads youth baseball icon Towny Townsend.
Both coaches will be honored at the Norfolk Sports Club Jamboree on March 5. Dinner is scheduled for 7 p.m. The program begins at 8 p.m. and includes a keynote address from Super Bowl XVII MVP John Riggins of Washington Redskins fame.
Tickets are $75 or $700 for a table of 10. Tickets can be purchased by calling Wayne Ford at (757) 497-3095 or Betty Dail at (757) 497-9583.
