Apr 27, 2010 9:06:42 AM

Orby Moss Jr., former director of athletics at North Carolina A&T State and Georgia State, is the 29th recipient of the NACDA/NIT Athletics Directors Award.

The NACDA/NIT Award is presented annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to basketball and the National Invitational Tournament. The award was initiated in 1981-82 with James "Bud" Jack of the University of Utah as the inaugural recipient.

"My involvement with basketball and the successes we enjoyed were the result of several very good coaches – men and women who knew their sport and were able to get the best out of their teams," Moss said.

While at North Carolina A&T State from 1982-90, Moss's men's basketball teams captured seven straight Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles, an NCAA record shared with Kentucky. The Aggies advanced to seven straight NCAA tournaments, along with an appearance in the NIT.

Moss, a 2009 NACDA Hall of Fame inductee, began his career in college athletics administration at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, where he served as assistant athletics director. He later became the director of athletics at Siena Heights College and hired a young coach, Ben Braun, who led Siena Heights, Eastern Michigan and Cal to tournament successes.

From there, Moss became director of athletics at the University of District Columbia, where he administered the merger of three institutions' athletics departments into the first land-grant institution in the nation's capital. He hired another young coach, Wil Jones, and won the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship.

From 1990-99, Moss served as AD at Georgia State, where he reorganized the athletics department and won his conference's all-sports award and the academic-achievement award in the same year. He hired legendary coach "Lefty" Driesell, who led Georgia State to its first win in the Division I tournament.

In 1999, Moss became an assistant VP and AD at Norfolk State University, where he oversaw a 37 percent increase in the school's student-athlete graduation rate.

In his last year of service, 2005-06, Moss assisted the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, with its re-accreditation as director of student retention and support services.

During his career, Moss served on the NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee, the Division I Management Council, the Governance Restructuring Subcommittee and the Selection Review Committee.