“Tom Butters was a big inspiration in my life,” Spurrier said Saturday. “I don’t know what I would have done without him hiring me twice at Duke University, 1980 and 1987, when I had no job. He’s one of the guys I owe my coaching career to. Good friend — wonderful friend.”
Butters, who died Friday, was Duke’s AD from 1977-97. He arrived at the school in 1967 as director of special events and also served as baseball coach from 1968-70 before moving fulltime into athletics administration.
“You didn’t have to be much of genius,” Butters said with a laugh when I asked him in an interview last fall how and why he hired Spurrier.