Longtime SC coach Art Baker has died. State’s athletic community mourns his passing

Art Baker, former head coach of Furman, The Citadel and East Carolina, has died, the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame announced Sunday. He was 94 years old.

“So sorry to hear this,” South Carolina football head coach Shane Beamer shared in an X (formerly Twitter) post. “Thankful for the opportunity Coach Baker gave my dad to stay on The Citadel staff when he was hired before the 1978 season.”

Baker, an Edmunds High School graduate (now Sumter High), graduated from Presbyterian College in 1953, after playing halfback with at PC for two seasons. He joined the program after graduation as an assistant. He also coached at Newberry and Eau Claire high schools in the Midlands.

He became an assistant coach at Clemson, joining former head coach Frank Howard in 1965. Baker later earned his first head coaching job at Furman in 1973, where he hired Dick Sheridan, Jimmy Satterfield and Bobby Johnson. All three became head coaches of Furman’s program throughout their careers.

Baker left Furman for The Citadel in 1978, where he was the head coach for four seasons. He took assistant coaching positions at East Carolina and Florida State before returning to the Pirates’ program as the head coach in 1985, where he remained until his coaching retirement in 1988. He finished with an all-time 69-80-5 record.

Baker stayed in collegiate athletics, joining USC as an associate athletics director for development and Gamecock Club director for nearly seven years. He was inducted the S.C. Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020 at 90 years old.

“Always enjoyed seeing him and hearing stories after his mid-day workouts when I was here in Columbia as an asst coach,” Beamer shared via social media.