William "Buzz" Sawyer competed in track and field for the Norfolk Division from 1949-1951. During that time, he won 12 of 13 races. He set the school records in the half-mile, one-mile and two-mile events.

As a sophomore Sawyer ran the fastest junior college mile in the nation with a time of 43:25. Sawyer later became a two-time All-American cross country runner at North Carolina State. He rose to international prominence after college.

In the summer of 1959 he was ranked seventh in the world in the two-mile, but was unable to qualify for the 1960 Olympics because of injury. Sawyer is now a retired engineer living in Hagerstown, Md.