Regulation size autographed Basketball signed by current College of Charleston Men's Basketball Coach Bobby Cremins

SIGNED: "BEST OF LUCK"

Bobby Cremins (born July 4, 1947) is the head coach of the College of Charleston's men's basketball team, and former head coach at Georgia Tech, serving from 1981 until 2000.

He started his coaching career at in 1971 as the head coach of Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He then returned to South Carolina to become McGuire's assistant coach and earn a M.S. degree in Guidance and Counseling in 1972.

At age 27, Cremins became the youngest NCAA Division I head coach in history when he took the helm of Appalachian State. His first year at Appalachian his team went 13-14, but then put together an 87-56 record over the next five seasons, and three Southern Conference titles. The Mountaineers posted a 23-6 record and an NCAA tournament bid in 1979, and two years later went 20-9. His performance at ASU garnered him national attention among NCAA coaching ranks, including catching the eye of the Georgia Tech athletic director. He became the Rambling Wreck's new head coach at the close of the 1981 season, on April 14, 1981.

Cremins took what had been a winless Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) team (4 wins and 23 losses the season before his arrival) to the ACC tournament championship in 1985, when he amassed 27 wins and only 8 losses. In 1990, his team went to the Final Four, with a 28-7 record. Cremins is three-time ACC "Coach of the Year" winner: 1983 with the first ever Yellow Jacket ACC tournament victory, and a 13-15 record; 1985, and 1996 with a 24-12 record, an ACC regular-season title (13-3), and a NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance. His coaching of the 1990 team earned him a Naismith College Coach of the Year honor.

He retired with a 25-year overall head coaching career record of 452-303 (.599%), and a Georgia Tech record, in 19-seasons, of 352-233 (.602%).

Cremins had a host of players that went on to have successful National Basketball Association (NBA) careers. First there was Mark Price (Cleveland Cavaliers) and John Salley (Detroit Pistons) in the early 1980s, then Duane Ferrell, Tom Hammonds, Dennis Scott, Brian Oliver, Kenny Anderson, Jon Barry, Travis Best, Stephon Marbury, Jason Collier and Matt Harpring.

He was also an assistant coach on the first-ever gold medal U.S. World University Games winner in 1986, under Lute Olson (University of Arizona). He also assisted Olson at the 1986 FIBA World Championship, winning the gold medal.^[1] In the summer of 1989 he coached the 1990 World Championships qualifying U.S. squad.

Noted for his white-hair, Cremins also assisted NBA coach Lenny Wilkens on team USA's Olympic Games appearance held in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996.

On March 24, 1993, Cremins agreed to coach his alma mater, the South Carolina Gamecocks, before doing an about-face three days later and returning to Georgia Tech.

In 2003, Georgia Tech officially named the basketball court at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum "Cremins Court".

Turning down numerous offers to coach during his retirement, and even an occasional athletic directors job, Cremins toured the country doing motivational speaking, did television commentary on ACC and NCAA basketball, and worked with charities, mainly for Coaches vs. Cancer and the Jimmy V Foundation. Bobby also raised money for a five-to-six week summer program, half of which include disadvantaged kids, the Hilton Head Basketball Camp 101.

In 2006, Cremins returned to coaching at the College of Charleston, hoping to reinstate the program to its status as a powerhouse in college basketball.