INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA has named Christine Grant, former director of women’s athletics at the University of Iowa, as the recipient of this year’s NCAA President’s Gerald R. Ford Award.

The award, named in recognition of former President Gerald Ford, honors individuals who have provided significant leadership as an advocate for higher education and intercollegiate athletics on a continuous basis over the course of his or her career.

NCAA President Myles Brand will present the award to Grant at the opening business session of the 2007 NCAA Convention Saturday, January 6, in Orlando, Florida. In honor of Grant, the NCAA will donate an honorarium to the institution of her choice for the benefit of student-athletes.

“Christine Grant is a pioneer, a person who clears the path for others to follow,” Brand said. “Her involvement in drafting Title IX legislation more than 30 years ago, her commitment to the relationship between education and athletics at the University of Iowa, and her leadership through the NCAA at the national level are the evidence of a life spent in service to higher education and intercollegiate athletics. It will be my great pleasure to present this award to Christine during the 2007 NCAA Convention. All student-athletes are indebted to her dedication to the values of sports in education.”

Grant is best known for her fight for gender equity in athletics. She testified before Congress several times and served as a consultant for the Civil Rights Title IX Task Force. She was a founding member of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and served in a variety of leadership roles with that organization. She also has held several positions with the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA), including the presidency from 1987 to 1989.

A native of Scotland, Grant served as women’s athletics director at Iowa from the time the department was established in 1973 until her retirement in 2000. Grant, who remains an associate professor at the institution, graduated from Dunfermline College of Physical Education in 1956. She was a field hockey coach and player in her native country and in Canada. She came to Iowa in 1969, receiving a bachelor’s degree in physical education and master’s and doctoral degrees in sport administration.

Under her direction, Iowa’s athletics department grew to include 12 NCAA championship sports that won a combined 27 Big Ten Conference titles. Throughout her career, various organizations have honored Grant for her work, including NACWAA, the Women’s Sports Foundation and the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport.

This is the fourth year the NCAA has presented the award. University of Notre Dame President Emeritus Theodore Hesburgh received the inaugural award in 2004, former Knight Commission chair William Friday was the 2005 recipient, and last year, Birch Bayh, former United States Senator from Indiana and “Father of Title IX”, and John Wooden, legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach who won 10 national championships, were dual recipients of the award.

Ford was the 38th president of the United States. He was vice president when he took the oath of office in 1974 after President Richard Nixon resigned. Ford was president until 1977. His political career began in 1948 when he was elected to Congress from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He became House Minority Leader in 1965, a position he held until Nixon appointed him vice president in 1973.

Ford played football at the University of Michigan where he participated on national championship teams in 1932 and 1933. He started every game at center his senior year and was voted Most Valuable Player by his teammates. Ford received contract offers from the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions, which he turned down in favor of studying law at Yale University. Before beginning his law classes, Ford coached freshman football and boxing.

“Both as a public servant and as a student-athlete, President Ford embodies the qualities of integrity, achievement and dedication that we aspire to in intercollegiate athletics,” Brand said.