Herb Coman Passes Away at 88

We at UNC Asheville Athletics are sad to report today that a member of our Hall of Fame – Herb Coman – has passed away at the age of 88.

Mr. Coman was an original member of the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003. We honored him throughout the 2002-03 basketball season for his contributions to the school.

Mr. Coman reestablished athletics at our predecessor, Asheville-Biltmore College, in 1947. In this day and age, we all think we’re too busy. However, this is what Mr. Coman was doing during his tenure at Asheville-Biltmore. He was hired to be the athletic director, head football coach, head basketball coach, head baseball coach, dean of students, teach 15 hours of science and run the canteen. Now that’s busy.

“Well I had to make a living,” he joked when I asked him about back in 2002. “I didn’t look upon it as work. Every minute of it was a great deal of joy. I really enjoyed my time as Asheville-Biltmore.”

He worked at Asheville-Biltmore from 1947-52 before moving on to numerous other positions over the years. Mr. Coman still had an influence on UNC Asheville as he coached future Athletics Director Tom Hunnicutt in football during his high school days.

In the 1960’s, Mr. Coman worked at Beacon Manufacturing in Black Mountain. He helped another future Bulldog. Eddie Biedenbach was working at the Presbyterian Home for Children in the summer as part of his studies at N.C. State. The future Bulldog head coach had been warned by his professor at N.C. State that there would be some unplanned visits and he better be wearing his socks when he was working.

“I was a little bit of a radical when I was in college because I didn’t like to wear socks,” explained Biedenbach. “My professor who was overseeing the internship warned me that I needed to wear socks in my internship at all time.”

Much to Eddie’s bad luck, he was not wearing socks when the professor visited him one day. Herb Coman came to the rescue.

“Herb put a good word in for me when my professor visited. He calmed the waters for me and allowed me to finish my internship,” added Biedenbach.

Coman remembered Eddie’s sock-less days with fondness in 2003.

“The kids just loved Eddie,” remembered Coman. “He was great with the kids, made them all feel important and gave them a great deal of enjoyment while he was here. Even though he didn’t wear his socks all the time those kids looked up to him.”

When Eddie was interviewing for the head coaching job at UNC Asheville in 1996, he ran across Herb Coman for the first time since the sock-less summer of 1967.

“I was at the Country Club of Asheville with Tom Hunnicutt and all of sudden I see Herb,” said Biedenbach. “The first thing he asked me if I was wearing socks. It was great to see him that night.”

Biedenbach is glad the Bulldogs honored him during the 2002-03 season.

“We can never thank people like Herb Coman enough for what they did for this school right after World War II,” admitted Biedenbach. “We have to remember what they did and what they accomplished. He started sports here again from scratch and made a difference in so many lives.”

Herb Coman will never be forgotten at UNC Asheville.