RICHARD BERG OBITUARY

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida Athletics Department is saddened to announce the passing of former Athletics Director, Richard Berg. He died Tuesday, Oct. 9 at the age of 82.
 
Berg joined UWF as Athletic Director in July of 1988, as he inherited a growing athletics program. Under his watch the department grew from nine teams and an annual budget of just under $500,000 to 14 teams and a budget of over $3 million. UWF hosted six national championships during his tenure, including the 2006 NCAA Division II National Championships Fall Festival. Berg led the Argonauts in their transition from the NAIA to the NCAA in 1994-95, and during his years as Athletic Director he also led numerous facility renovation projects in the UWF Field House and the East Sports Complex.
 
During Berg's tenure as Athletic Director, the Argonauts captured NCAA Division II national championships in men's golf (2001) and men's tennis (2004, 2005), as well as an NAIA national championship in softball (1993). After the school's transition to Division II and the Gulf South Conference, UWF tallied 41 conference titles under Berg's direction, as well as three GSC Commissioner's Trophy winners and eight GSC All-Sports Trophies. In his final year before retirement in 2006-07, the Argonauts claimed six GSC championships, the most during one academic year in school history.
 
Berg was internationally renowned for his work in promoting athletics and health and fitness. He also coached basketball at the Olympic Festival in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the deaf Olympics in Los Angeles, California and coached professional basketball in Puerto Rico. He was a leader in bringing the game of basketball internationally by coaching, running camps, lecturing and recruiting in sixteen countries, including many years in Finland, Sweden, France, and was the first American to put on basketball camps behind the iron curtain in Hungary.

He was also extremely active in International Sports and the Olympic movement over the past 35 years. He was involved in the National Sports Festival in 1978 and, since coming to Pensacola, has been active with sports in Northwest Florida. He served as President or Chairman of the Board with First City Sports, Pensacola Sports and the First Tee of Northwest Florida.

In addition to his over 30 years of work in athletic administration at the NAIA and NCAA Division I and II levels, he also coached men's basketball for 20 years while at Dowling College and Hofstra University in New York. Berg served on many NAIA and NCAA committees, including a stint as the South Region Chair of the NCAA Men's Basketball Committee while at UWF.
 
He was inducted into the Pensacola Sports Association Hall of Fame (1998), the Dowling College Athletics Hall of Fame (2000), UWF Athletics Hall of Fame (2010), Suffolk County (NY) Sports Hall of Fame (2012) and the inaugural class of the Gulf South Conference Hall of Honor (2014). He was also selected to the Pensacola News Journal Top 10 Coaches/Administrators of the 1990s. In 2002, he received the Marion Viccars Prize by the University of West Florida.

A native of New York, Berg received a B.A. in Social Sciences from Mansfield University in 1964 and an M.A. in Sociology from Adelphi University in 1972.  Berg was a three-sport student-athlete at Mansfield, playing for the basketball, football and track & field teams.

UWF created the Richard and Sandra Berg Scholar-Athlete Endowed Scholarship in 2011 and the Richard and Sandra Berg Scholar-Athlete Award has been awarded to a male and female student-athlete at the athletics banquet each year.
 
A celebration of life will be held at Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church on Monday, Dec. 19, from 3:00 to 3:30 pm. A reception will follow from 3:30 to 5:00 pm.
 
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Richard & Sandra Berg Scholar Athlete Scholarship Endowment. Gifts can be directed to the UWF Foundation, 11000 University Pkwy., Pensacola, FL 32514, and designated to the Richard Berg Scholarship. Or donations made to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Arrangements made by Family Funeral and Cremation, Pensacola, FL.
 
Richard and his late wife Sandra were married for 56 years prior to her passing in 2016. They had three children, Bonnie, Dawn, and Brett, and eight grandchildren.