NCCA President Myles Brand Loses Battle With Pancreatic Cancer

Sports Betting News - September 17th, 2009 - Written by Scott

It was a sad day for all of college athletics as NCAA president Myles Brand died at the age of 67 on Wednesday of pancreatic cancer.  Brand announced that he had the cancer in January at the NCAA convention.  He did however continue in his role of handling the organization's operations while undergoing treatment.  Brad was most known for his focus on academics for college athletes, not just their performance.  He was very outspoken in his belief that universities had a mission to accomplish and it wasn't just winning championships. 

"Myles Brand's passing is a great personal loss of a dear friend and an even greater loss to the NCAA and collegiate athletics," said Georgia president Michael Adams, who worked closely with Brand. "I believe Myles will be remembered as a person who helped us refocus on the student in student-athlete and his academic reforms will long outlive him."

Brand was instrumental in initiating tougher academic policies for athletes in the NCAA.  From the time he took office in 2003, he hit the ground running with pushing for tougher eligibility requirements for incoming freshman and current students.  This push eventually led to the NCAA adopting  two new academic standards, the Academic Progress Report and the Graduation Success Rate.  Both of these measures showed how well student-athletes were performing in the classroom.

The former NCAA president was also criticized by many for his role in what some fans believe destroyed the Indiana University basketball program.  In May of 2000, Brand put then head coach Bobby Knight on a zero-tolerance policy after accusations were made against Knight that he had choked a former player.  It wasn't long after that freshman Kent Harvey came forward and said that Knight had grabbed him.   After these two accusations, Brand fired the head coach who had won three national championships.  Indiana students protested this move by Brand very outspokenly.  However, this set the tone that the NCAA president was on a mission to correct what was wrong in college athletics.  Big Ten commissioner James Delaney spoke highly of Brand and the job he did while in office.

"This is a sad moment for the Big Ten and the NCAA as a whole," Delany said. "Myles Brand was a tremendous leader at Indiana University and an active change agent in spotlighting academic improvement as the NCAA president. He made tremendous progress in moving the NCAA closer to its educational roots and transformed it into an organization concerned about the student component of the student-athlete."

Brand leaves behind the respect of all involved in college athletics by what he has accomplished.  He is survived by his wife and one son.

To discuss this and other Sports Betting stories like it, be sure to check out our new forum at:
https://www.usaplayers.com/forums/