East Coast Bowl Names South Coach
Jameson Gibbs
11/20/07

       Petersburg, VA - The East Coast Bowl Committee is pleased to announce that Hall of Fame coach, Willard Bailey, will be the head coach of the South team in the 7^th Annual East Coast Bowl.

When Saint Paul’s College decided to re-build its CIAA Football Program, they didn’t have to look far to find the right person to lay the foundation.  In May of 2004, Saint Paul’s College named Willard Bailey the head football coach and associate athletic director.  Less than three months prior to this announcement, Bailey had been inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame.  He is the CIAA’s winningest football coach with a record of 211-112. 

Bailey has coached for 31 years in CIAA territory, including 9 seasons at Norfolk State University and 22 seasons (2 stints) at Virginia Union University. He has accumulated six NCAA play-off appearances, seven CIAA Championships and six Gold Bowl Championship titles. 

In his final season (2003) at Virginia Union University, Bailey coached the VUU football team to elite status, recording the institution’s 502^nd win.  The only other HBCU to reach the 500-win plateau is Tuskegee University.  Bailey ranks second in black college career football wins and second among Division II career coaching wins. 

In over three decades of college coaching, Coach Bailey has mentored many outstanding people.  His student-athletes have gone on to become professional athletes, obtain solid occupations and become pillars of their communities.  In recent years, several of Bailey’s former players have gone on to the NFL, including Pete Hunter of the New York Jets. A native of Suffolk, VA, Bailey earned a bachelor’s degree from Norfolk State University and a master’s degree in Education and Athletic Administration from New York University

The East Coast Bowl game has quickly become the Thanksgiving tradition in Petersburg, VA and will be played Saturday, November 24^th at 12 noon, The Committee will gather nominations from schools in just about all 50 states, which will be narrowed down to the top 75 Division I-FCS, II, III and NAIA athletes. Players will report to Petersburg the day before Thanksgiving and spend the holiday doing various community visits as well as practice sessions for NFL scouts. The game itself is set-up as a scholarship event, with all of the revenue generated going into a fund for a local high school senior who plans on attending a Division I-FCS, II or III college.