WALTER BYERS, the first Exec Dir of the NCAA who spent 36 years "leading and shaping the organization that oversees college athletics," died Tuesday at his home in Emmett, Kan., at the age of 93, according to Jim O'Connell of the AP. Byers' son, FRITZ, said that his father died when a "urinary tract infection spread into his bloodstream." Byers began his tenure at the helm of the NCAA in '51 and "helped invent the now widely used term 'student-athlete,' which he said was intended to disguise the fact that players had become de facto professionals." He was a "big proponent of having the NCAA oversee women's athletics as well and that came to fruition" in the early '80s. Byers "was 29 years old when he was hired by the NCAA." The offices opened in K.C. -- his hometown -- "with five employees." When he retired in '87, the NCAA "had about 150 full-time employees and its membership had grown from 381 schools to 1,003." During his tenure Byers was "brought into conflict with many wealthy alumni, as well as some of the most popular figures in collegiate history," including former men's basketball coaches ADOLPH RUPP at Kentucky and JERRY TARKANIAN at UNLV and former Oklahoma football coach BUD WILKINSON (AP, 5/27).
GREW WEARY OF CORRUPTION: In N.Y., Bruce Weber writes Byers was "one of the 20th century’s most powerful sports figures, even if he never appeared on the playing field and was rarely in the public eye." Byers for much of his tenure was an "ardent advocate of the student-athlete concept and of the necessity to maintain the strict amateur status of college athletes; he consistently came to the defense of the NCAA enforcement division, whose pursuit of athletes committing minor offenses against arcane NCAA regulations often drew criticism." But as his tenure grew closer to its end, he "viewed the college sports landscape with increasing cynicism." He said that the "high stakes of the sports business had led to rampant corruption, made the notion of amateurism quaint and outdated and the NCAA's insistence on maintaining it hypocritical" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/28).
GAME CHANGER: In K.C., Blair Kerkhoff notes Byers "worked in the Big Ten office in Chicago" until '51 when colleges decided to "establish an operational office to govern sports programs." Byers was named Exec Dir and "opened the office" in K.C. He oversaw "remarkable growth in college sports, engineering the NCAA’s first national television rights contract" in '52 and "subsequent packages that grew in the millions in rights fees" (K.C. STAR, 5/28).
