OFFICIAL OBITUARY (Northcutt and Sons Home for Funerals)

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Former Morehead State cross country and track and field coach A.L. "Buck" Dawson has passed away at the age of 83.

Visitation for family and friends will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2, at Northcutt & Son Home for Funerals in Morehead. COVID-19 visitation requirements will be observed.
 
Funeral services will be conducted at 1 p.m. with Pastor Jeremy Halstead officiating. The funeral service will be live streamed on the Northcutt & Son Home for Funerals Facebook page.  Private burial will be in Brown Cemetery.

Recruited by the legendary Woody Hayes to play football at Ohio State, he transferred to Morehead State after one season with the Buckeyes.
 
After a successful career as a player in football and baseball, and graduating from MSU in 1960, he began his coaching career at Lafayette High School in Lexington, then Millersburg Military Institute.  He earned his Master's Degree from Georgetown (Ky.) and moved to West Virginia State in 1967 as assistant football coach and head coach for track and field where he won five consecutive conference titles.

In 1973, Morehead State recruited him to lead the cross country and track and field teams and he was named the Ohio Valley Conference Track Coach of the Year in 1974 and won the OVC Indoor Championship in 1977 before moving in after the 1978 seasons. 

The university recognized his successful coaching efforts by naming the track at Jayne Stadium the A. L. "Buck" Dawson Track.

He started the cross country program at Warner Southern (Fla.) in 1991 where he was recognized as Florida Sun Conference Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year.
 
In 1995, he was named Florida Southern University's head cross country coach where he led the men's team to 10 conference championships, including the last nine in a row, while guiding the women's team to five league titles. Both squads placed in the top ten in NCAA regional competition ten times.  Under Dawson's guidance, FSU made 22 appearances in NCAA postseason meets. He was honored as Sunshine State's Conference Men's Coach of the Year nine times and SSC Women's Coach of the Year five times. After retiring in 2007 he continued as a volunteer coach at Florida Southern University, and at Montreat (N.C.).

He returned to Morehead and served as a volunteer coach for the men's golf as well as cross country and track and field programs and was an avid fan and season ticket holder for MSU basketball.

He has been inducted into seven halls of fame, including West Virginia State Hall of Fame in 2001, Morehead State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001, Florida Southern College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006, Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame in 2008, Polk County (Fla.) Sports Hall of Fame in 2008, Kentucky Track and Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Warner Southern Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.  He was also recognized by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Fiftieth Anniversary – All Time Coaches List.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Roberta, as well as a daughter, two sons, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.