Colonial Conference Names Yeager Commissioner

Thomas E. Yeager, the director of legislative services for the NCAA, was appointed the first commissioner of the Colonial Athletic Assn., conference officials said.

Yeager, 35, has been with the NCAA in Mission, Kan., since 1976, when he joined the governing body as an investigator. He was promoted to legislative services in 1981, and became director in September 1984.

Prior to joining the NCAA, Yeager, a native of Allentown, Pa., was an assistant athletic director at his alma mater, Springfield College in Massachusetts.

Yeager was selected by the eight athletic directors of the Colonial’s member institutions.

“I was attracted to the Colonial by its overall philosophy of athletics and by the conference’s realistic expectations and achievable goals,” Yeager said. “I had heard from day one only good things about the member schools and the people at them. This is a group of people I will feel comfortable with, and will enjoy being associated with.”

Yeager, who is expected to begin his new job here Oct. 21, takes charge of a conference that was formed in June with the eight schools that formerly comprised the ECAC-South.

The Colonial’s schools--American, East Carolina, George Mason, James Madison, Navy, North Carolina-Wilmington, Richmond and William & Mary--will compete this year in seven men’s and five women’s sports, with the main one being men’s basketball.