RiverDogs co‐owner gives CGC commencement address

CHARLESTON, SC – May 7, 2011 – Charleston RiverDogs’ co‐owner Gene Budig will deliver the commencement address to The Citadel Graduate College Class of 2011 at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 7 in McAlister Field House.

“We’re delighted that Gene Budig is this year’s CGC commencement speaker,” said Brig. Gen. Samuel Hines, provost and dean of the college. “As a former president of three major universities and president of the American League, he has the perfect blend of education, business and sports experience to make him an inspiration to our graduating students.”

Budig earned a degree in journalism in 1962 from the University of Nebraska‐Lincoln. He earned his master’s a year later and his doctorate in 1967. While attending college Budig was also a member of the Air National Guard. A retired major general, his last assignment was assistant to the chief of the National Guard Bureau.

For 23 years Budig served in higher education as an educator and as president of three major state universities—Illinois State University, West Virginia University and the University of Kansas. In 1994, he left the University of Kansas to become president of the American League where he oversaw the operations of 14 clubs and the construction of $2.2 billion in new ballparks. After serving at the American League for six years, he became the senior adviser to Major League Baseball, a position that he continues to hold today.

Budig is now a distinguished professor and senior presidential adviser at the College Board in New York City and the author of The Inside Pitch, And More, A Game of Uncommon Skill and the recently released Grasping the Ring. He chairs College Ed, a national program funded by the Gates Foundation to increase college attendance. He has written essays for the Kansas City Star, The New York Times, USA Today and the Associated Press, and he is a frequent contributor to The Post and Courier.