POTSDAM – The SUNY Potsdam Alumni Association recently honored the longtime staff member William Mitchell, of Potsdam, with Honorary Lifetime Membership, during a ceremony at Reunion 2024.

Honorary Lifetime Membership is presented to non-alumni who have made exceptional contributions to the SUNY Potsdam Alumni Association and/or the College. Mitchell was honored in recognition of his 39 years of coaching and mentoring students and athletes at SUNY Potsdam.

Mitchell arrived in Potsdam in the late summer of 1985 as a newly hired assistant basketball coach for the Bears. He was joining an outstanding program, returning most of the key players from a team that had just lost in the 1985 National Division III Championship game by one point. Little did he know that he would never be on the losing side for the first 60 games of his coaching career.

Mitchell spent six seasons as assistant to Bears Hall of Fame Coach Jerry Welsh (Hon. '79). During those six seasons, SUNY Potsdam won a Division III National Championship, posted a 60-game winning streak -- the longest in Division III history -- and appeared in five straight NCAA Tournaments. In 1991, Welsh moved on to take the head job at Iona College, and Mitchell, who had been Jerry's "right hand man" was named as his replacement.

Mitchell spent 12 seasons as the head basketball coach, winning 145 games, and the SUNYAC regular season title in 2002-03. He then became the assistant athletic director and has been responsible for a multitude of tasks in the SUNY Potsdam Bears Athletics division, including serving at various times as facilities manager and overseeing game day supervision, sponsorship, club sports, summer camps, compliance and scheduling, to name just a few. Mitchell was the visionary who created our annual campus and North Country community's Bear Pride Night.

Mitchell has also been active in the community, coaching both boys and girls basketball at the high school level, and as a frequent speaker at basketball clinics in the North Country. He has made sure the Potsdam Bears have been supported, however they need it. His sacrifices and time have paid off immensely as the campus celebrates our dedicated athletes, teams and alumni.

For more information about the SUNY Potsdam Alumni Association, visit www.potsdam.edu/alumni.