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Two-volume retirement archive assembled for Robert K. Faris, longtime Director of Athletics at George Washington University, upon his retirement in 1982 after 27 years at GWU.
Together the two books contain well over 100 original signed letters, notes and retirement cards, along with original black-and-white photographs and related material. The correspondence was sent directly to Faris by people from throughout collegiate athletics, professional sports, government, universities and his wider professional circle. The books are being offered together as one archive.
The sports correspondence is particularly extensive and documents Faris’s relationships with athletic directors, coaches, conference administrators, officials and other figures in American college athletics.
Among the identified correspondents and represented figures are:
• J. Dallas Shirley — Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame referee, member of the first NBA officiating crew and an Olympic basketball official.
• Leo F. Miles — longtime Howard University Director of Athletics and NFL official. Miles became the first African American to officiate a Super Bowl when he worked Super Bowl VIII in 1974 and later served as an NFL supervisor of officials.
• Fred Schaus — former NBA All-Star; head basketball coach at West Virginia, Purdue and the Los Angeles Lakers; Lakers general manager; West Virginia athletic director; and member of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee.
• Leland Byrd — former West Virginia basketball All-American and athletic director; Executive Director of the Eastern Eight Conference, later renamed the Atlantic 10; and later athletic director at Western Michigan.
• Lefty Driesell — longtime Division I basketball coach whose career included Davidson, Maryland, James Madison and Georgia State.
• Bill Dooley — longtime college football coach and athletic administrator associated with Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Wake Forest.
• Lawrence J. Weise — longtime St. Bonaventure athletic director and major figure in the university’s athletic history.
• J.O. “Bo” Coppedge — former U.S. Naval Academy Director of Athletics.
• Frank Rienzo — longtime Georgetown University Director of Athletics during a transformative period in Georgetown athletics.
• Chuck Boone — University of Richmond athletic director and Virginia Sports Hall of Fame figure.
• Frank McInerney — University of Massachusetts Director of Athletics.
• Joseph S. Agee — longtime William & Mary coach and athletics figure.
• Jack Kvancz — college basketball coach and athletic administrator who later served as Director of Athletics at George Washington University.
Additional collegiate sports figures represented include Pat Bradley, Jim Jarrett, Dean Ehlers, Fred Gruninger, John Guthrie, Ted Aceto, Lloyd Elliott, Max Farrington, Mal Campbell, Brian McCall, Joe Gallagher, Stephen J. Korcheck, Robert “Bob” Frulla and others.
The archive also extends well beyond athletics. Political correspondence includes U.S. Senators John Warner, Harry F. Byrd Jr. and Jennings Randolph; Virginia Governor Chuck Robb, who later served in the U.S. Senate; and Nebraska Governor Charles Thone.
Also included is correspondence from American poet Edgar Bowers, later recipient of the Bollingen Prize for Poetry. His contribution is a substantial handwritten letter rather than a simple retirement card.
The two volumes also contain original black-and-white photographs connected with Faris and his professional circle, adding another documentary component to the correspondence.
The importance of the group is its common provenance. These were not assembled later as unrelated autographs. The correspondence was directed to Robert K. Faris around his retirement and collectively documents the unusually broad professional network developed during his decades in collegiate athletics.
Some correspondence was removed from the volumes before the present owners acquired them, as evidenced by vacant positions/pages. No claim is made that these books contain every piece originally assembled. The remaining material is being kept together and the two books will not be separated for sale.
Please examine photographs for condition and examples of the contents. Because the archive contains substantially more material than can be shown within ’s photo limit, photographs represent only a portion of the signed correspondence, cards, photographs and other contents included in the two volumes.
