Roosevelt Sandy Gilliam Jr., the former director of athletics at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and former administrator at South Carolina State University, died last month at his home in Lancaster, South Carolina. He was 81 years old.
A native of South Carolina, Gilliam was a graduate of historically Black Allen University in Columbia. He went on to earn a master’s degree at Indiana University.
After serving as a coach and administrator at the high school level, he was hired as the athletics director at what is now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He also was the head football and baseball coach at the university. He left the university in 1968 to become a scout for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League. Late in his career, he was vice president for development and industrial relations at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.