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Retired UConn AD Toner dies

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STORRS, Conn. – John Toner, the retired athletic director credited with helping build the University of Connecticut into a college athletics power and hiring its best-known coaches, died. He was 91.

Toner’s death was announced by the university, where he was athletics director emeritus. UConn said he died Tuesday in Savannah, Georgia, where he lived in retirement.

Toner served as athletic director from 1969 to 1987, adding women’s varsity sports and bringing the school into the Big East Conference as a charter member.

In the mid-1980s, he hired women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma and men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun, Hall of Famers who have won a combined 12 NCAA National Championships at UConn.

Toner also directed the planning and funding for UConn’s Gampel Pavilion.

He was president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association from 1983 to 1985.

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