SAS began in the 1960s as a research project at North Carolina State University led by James Goodnight and Anthony J. Barr. It was intended to analyze agricultural data from the United States Department of Agriculture in order to increase crop output. A consortium of eight land-grant universities that made up the University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations, which was primarily funded by the USDA, funded the project under a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). When NIH discontinued funding in 1972, consortium members chipped in $5,000 each per year to keep developing and maintaining the system. [info from Wikipedia]

Credits for SAS 72 as described in SAS 76 Users Guide:

Anthony J. Barr
 Language translator; data management and supervisor; 
 ANOVA, DUNCAN, FACTOR, GUTTMAN, INBREED, LATTICE, NESTED, 
 PLAN, PRINT, RANK, SORT, SPEARMAN

James H. Goodnight
 CANCORR, CORR, DISCRIM, MEANS, PLOT, PROBIT, REGR, RSQUARE, 
 RQUE, STANDARD, STEPWISE.

Jolayne W. Service
 "A User's Guide to the Statistical Analysis System"

Carroll G. Perkins
 HARVEY, HIST, PRTPCH: A Guide to the Supplementary Procedures 
 Library for the Statistical Analysis System

37,000 total lines of code with distribution:
 Barr ......................65% 
 Goodnight ..............32% 
 Others.....................3% 

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Here's an early SAS cover (so long ago that 'SAS' stood for
'Statistical Analysis System'!)



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Here's an early SAS Communications newsletter:



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