Myles Brand: A Legacy of Leadership

NCAA President Myles Brand, the first university president to serve as the Association's chief executive and a champion of academic reform, fiscal responsibility and student-athlete well-being, died Wednesday from pancreatic cancer.

EDITORIALS BY MYLES BRAND

To Rooney, or not to Rooney

The first African-American head football coach in what today is the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) — the 119 institutions that compete in the annual postseason bowl games — was hired in 1979.

Detroit benefits from legacy initiative

Working with Detroit's leadership, including the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, we have identified a need for the creation of Early Learning Communities.

Diversity hiring is right, smart

There will be more head coaches of color at NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools than ever in history when the 2009 season gets underway. And more were hired than ever before at the end of the 2008 season.

Give optimism a chance

I returned recently from a trip to China, where I was a guest of the Ministry of Education. The Chinese had a successful Olympics, and they want to expand their approach to sports from one that focuses on preparing elite athletes.

Fan behavior in college sports

There is something very wrong taking place in sports, including college sports. It isn't universal. It doesn't happen all the time. But it happens often enough to suggest that we — the fans — are losing our way.

Diversity data needs to improve

I have said on many occasions since my tenure as NCAA president began in January 2003 that intercollegiate athletics has an unflattering record of hiring women and people of color for leadership positions.

The "Dumb Jock" myth is dumb

A musical opened on Broadway in 1927 called Good News. These were the days before professional football, and the college game was as much the rage of 1920's America as flappers, speakeasies and Al Jolson performing in blackface...

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