Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

It all started at IUP 50 years ago.

"It" is a career that took Bill Hunter from a pro baseball contract with the then Brooklyn Dodgers to major-league roster slots with five teams, more than 13 seasons as a coach with the Baltimore Orioles, a successful stint as manager of the Texas Rangers, nine years as baseball coach at Towson University in Maryland, and more than a decade as athletic director there.
By the time all of the above got underway, Hunter was already well known as a standout Indiana High School football quarterback, basketball player and baseball infielder.

He maintained the three pursuits as a freshman and sophomore at what was then Indiana State Teachers College.  Playing the 1946 and '47 grid seasons for coaches George Miller and Regis "Peck." McKnight the 1947 baseball schedule, and staying with roundball until the Dodgers sent him lo spring training at Vero Beach, Florida, in the closing days of the 1947-48 season.
After six years in minor-league ball, Hunter made his first American League roster in 1953, with the Saint Louis Browns, was named their representative to that year’s All-Star Game, and in 1954 moved to Baltimore as the Browns became the Orioles.

Traded to the New York Yankees in '55, he shared the shortstop post with Phil Rizzuto and in '56 was part of their world championship team.

After two more AL playing years in Kansas City (with the now Oakland Athletics) and with the Cleveland Indians, Hunter managed Bluefield, West Virginia (in the Oriole organization), to a pair of Appalachian League titles.

Baltimore invited him the following year (l964) lo join its parent-club coaching staff, and he manned the third-base box for managers Hank Bauer and Earl Weaver as the Orioles compiled the best record in major-league basebal1, winning the 1966 and 1970 World Series plus American League pennants in '69 and '71.

In 1977, the challenge of major-league managing beckoned, and Hunter moved to Arlington, Texas, where he piloted the Rangers to two second-place finishes and to their best record in history, once ranking as runner-up himself in voting for AL Manager of the Year honors.

As of 1979, Hunter served at what until this summer was known as Towson State.  Appointed athletic director in 1984. He contributed greatly to the Division I university building success both competitively and academically. He served two terms as president of the East Coast Conference and chaired the Council of Athletic Directors of the Big South Conference.
Married to the former Beverly Craig of Indiana (who also attended ISTC), they have two sons, Gregory and Kevin, and four grandchildren. Since retiring from Towson in 1995, he is volunteering at Oregon Ridge Nature Center on a weekly basis.