Gene Budig

Gene Arthur Budig

• School University of Nebraska

• Born May 25, 1939 in Lincoln, NE USA
• Died September 8, 2020 in South Carolina USA

Biographical Information

Dr. Gene Budig is best known to baseball fans as a former American League president.

Born and raised in Nebraska, Budig worked as a newspaper reporter for the Lincoln Star and Lincoln Journal while attending the University of Nebraska, from which he eventually earned a Ph.D. in education after studying journalism as an undergraduate. He started teaching in 1967. At age 34, he became president of Illinois State University in 1974. Three years later, he moved on to the same position at West Virginia University. From 1981 to 1994, he was Chancellor of the University of Kansas. He later taught a class about the business aspects of baseball at Princeton University. He also served as a major general in the Nebraska Air National Guard.

A lifelong baseball fan, Budig became president of the AL in 1994, succeeding Bobby Brown, and held that position until early 2000. He was the last AL president, as the league merged with the National League to form Major League Baseball at that point. In 2007, he became a part-owner of the minor league Charleston RiverDogs. He passed away in 2020 at the age of 81.

Related Sites

• Budig at the Bat
• Associated Press Obituary