“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 Mr. 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.’’
Mr. Brand gained national attention in May 2000 when he put Knight on a zero-tolerance policy after a former player said the 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 Mr. Brand did what fans considered unthinkable: he fired the coach who won three national championships.
Indiana students protested, even hanging Mr. Brand in effigy, but the decision gave him a platform to address the problems he saw in college sports.
In January 2001, Mr. Brand criticized the growing “arms race’’ in college sports, saying that school presidents faced tough challenges with celebrity coaches and suggesting the emphasis on winning championships endangered the real mission of universities.
In October 2002, Mr. Brand was hired to lead the NCAA and used that position to move his agenda forward.
After his term began in January 2003, he pushed for tougher eligibility standards for incoming freshman and current students. Eventually, the NCAA adopted two new academic measures, the Academic Progress Report and the Graduation Success Rate - calculations that provide real-time statistics on how athletes are performing in the classroom.
