TIFTON–Benny Dees, coach of the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College men’s basketball team from 1962–1967, passed away on March 23 at the age of 86.

Under Dees’ leadership, the Golden Stallions won the state junior college basketball

championship in 1964. The victory marked the first men’s basketball state title for ABAC since Coach Bruce Gressette’s team won the 1949 crown.

Dees was inducted into the ABAC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011 and the entire 1964

ABAC team was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017.

Dees resigned his ABAC position at the end of the 1967 season to become the first head coach at the new men’s basketball program at Virginia Commonwealth University. His mother, Pearl Dees, was a longtime house mother in an ABAC dormitory, and his brother, Peter, played and coached at ABAC.

Dees was also successful as a coach at the NCAA Division 1 level, coaching at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of New Orleans, the University of Wyoming, and Western Carolina University.

In 1987, Dees’ New Orleans team recorded its first ever NCAA tournament win over

BYU. The Privateers piled up a 26-4 record that season.
During a 10-year span from 1985–1995, Dees compiled a 172–123 record in two seasons

at New Orleans, six seasons at Wyoming, and two seasons at Western Carolina. He was also an assistant coach at the University of Alabama, Georgia Tech, and Western Kentucky.

The funeral service for Dees will be held at 11 a.m. on March 27 at the Uvalda United Methodist Church. Burial will follow at 3:30 p.m. at Rose Hill Cemetery in Alma.