NCAA President Myles Brand dead of cancer
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INDIANAPOLIS -- Myles Brand, the former Indiana University president who fired basketball coach Bob Knight and later went on to lead the NCAA, died Wednesday afternoon from pancreatic cancer. He was 67.
As the first former university president ever to run college sports' largest governing body, Brand worked to change the perception that wins supersede academics in college sports.
He broke the news that he had cancer in January at the NCAA convention and continued to run the organization's day-to-day operations, despite undergoing treatment. The NCAA announced his death. Officials were not ready to announce who would replace Brand or when they may begin searching for a successor.
Brand gained national attention in May 2000 when he put Knight on a zero-tolerance policy after a former player alleged the hugely successful but hot-headed coach had choked him during a practice years earlier.
Four months after that announcement, freshman Kent Harvey accused Knight of grabbing him, and Brand did what fans considered unthinkable - firing the coach who won three national championships in Bloomington.
"That was a very difficult time for Myles, and I know he worked extremely hard to resolve those matters in a very, very different way. The way it ended up was not the way he wanted it to end," said Terry Clapacs, a longtime university administrator who worked closely with Brand in the 1990s, when Brand received an award in June. "But at some point, you have to make a decision that is tough for the university and he did that."
Students protested, gathering in front of Brand's home even hanging Brand in effigy, but his decision gave Brand a platform to address the problems he saw in college sports.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Myles Brand, the former Indiana University president who fired basketball coach Bob Knight and later went on to lead the NCAA, died Wednesday afternoon from pancreatic cancer. He was 67.
As the first former university president ever to run college sports' largest governing body, Brand worked to change the perception that wins supersede academics in college sports.
He broke the news that he had cancer in January at the NCAA convention and continued to run the organization's day-to-day operations, despite undergoing treatment. The NCAA announced his death. Officials were not ready to announce who would replace Brand or when they may begin searching for a successor.
Brand gained national attention in May 2000 when he put Knight on a zero-tolerance policy after a former player alleged the hugely successful but hot-headed coach had choked him during a practice years earlier.
Four months after that announcement, freshman Kent Harvey accused Knight of grabbing him, and Brand did what fans considered unthinkable - firing the coach who won three national championships in Bloomington.
"That was a very difficult time for Myles, and I know he worked extremely hard to resolve those matters in a very, very different way. The way it ended up was not the way he wanted it to end," said Terry Clapacs, a longtime university administrator who worked closely with Brand in the 1990s, when Brand received an award in June. "But at some point, you have to make a decision that is tough for the university and he did that."
Students protested, gathering in front of Brand's home even hanging Brand in effigy, but his decision gave Brand a platform to address the problems he saw in college sports.