RICHARD “BUD” PHILLIPS

GREENVILLE — Richard “Bud” Phillips died on Monday at the age of 85.

The funeral service will be held on Wednesday at 11 am at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Greenville.

A native of Guilford County and a 1949 graduate of Wake Forest, Bud built an outstanding record in several sports at four different schools, most notably at J. H. Rose High in Greenville. He served Rose in one capacity or another from 1957 to his retirement in 1990.

During his career, he was a head coach in football, basketball, baseball, track, and wrestling as well as serving as athletic director. His 1961 Rose football team won the Eastern championship (there was no state title at that time) and he was head coach for the North Carolina team in the 1968 Shrine Bowl game. Notably, his basketball teams when he coached at Haw River often averaged close to 100 points a game, and that was back in the early 1950’s.

Phillips was very active in state and national athletic director circles. He served as both president and later executive secretary of the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association, and represented that group on the NCHSAA Board of Directors.

He was the first prep athletic director in the state to earn athletic director certification through the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA).He was inducted into the NCHSAA Hall of Fame in 1992.