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Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was the first
Walter Byers, Ex-N.C.A.A. Leader Who Rued Corruption, Dies at 93
''The New York Times'' (May 27, 2015). Retrieved on 2018-01-11.
SI.com article on Byers
The Shame of College Sports
– Taylor Branch, The Atlantic, September 7, 2011
‘Student-Athlete’ Has Always Been a Lie
- By Nathan Kalman-Lamb, Jay M. Smith, and Stephen T. Casper, The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 6, 2021 {{DEFAULTSORT:Byers, Walter 1922 births 2015 deaths American sportswriters National Collegiate Athletic Association people National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was the first executive director
Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization.
The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...
of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
.
Career
Byers was the firstexecutive director
Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization.
The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...
of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
. He served from 1951 to 1988. He also helped start the United States Basketball Writers Association in 1956. Byers expanded the NCAA men's basketball tournament in 1951 from 8 to 16 teams.
WFAN
WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...
New York's Mike Francesa
Michael Patrick Francesa (born March 20, 1954) is an American sports-radio talk-show host. Together with Chris Russo, he launched ''Mike and the Mad Dog'' in 1989 on WFAN in New York City, which ran until 2008 and is one of the most successful s ...
referred to him as an "Oz-like" figure who ran the NCAA with ultimate control. Byers was also described as a "petty tyrant." ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' said that he was sometimes known as "That power-mad Walter Byers."
Byers negotiated TV contracts that preempted individual colleges' rights on the way to building a billion-dollar business, leading to a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
ruling that freed the colleges to negotiate on their own.
The NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship
The Walter Byers Scholar (also known as Walter Byers Scholarship, and Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship) program is a scholarship program that recognizes the top male and female student-athlete in NCAA sports and that is awarded annually by t ...
is named in his honor. On May 26, 2015, Byers died at the age of 93.''The New York Times'' (May 27, 2015). Retrieved on 2018-01-11.
Book
In his book ''Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes'' Byers turned against the NCAA in its then-current form, saying it established "a nationwide money-laundering scheme." (P. 73). Byers also said that the NCAA developed the term "student-athlete" in order to insulate the colleges from having to provide long-term disability payments to players injured while playing their sport (and making money for their university and the NCAA). (P. 69). Byers said thatCongress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
should "Free the Athletes," and enact a "comprehensive College Athletes' Bill of Rights." (P. 374). He said that "the federal government should require deregulation of a monopoly business operated by not-for-profit institutions contracting together to achieve maximum financial returns... Collegiate amateurism is... an economic camouflage for monopoly practice. . . , ne which'operat san air-tight racket of supplying cheap athletic labor.'" (Pp. 376, 388).
See also
*College Football Association The College Football Association (CFA) was a group formed by many of the American colleges with top-level college football programs in order to negotiate contracts with TV networks to televise football games. It was formed in 1977 by 63 schools from ...
References
External links
SI.com article on Byers
The Shame of College Sports
– Taylor Branch, The Atlantic, September 7, 2011
‘Student-Athlete’ Has Always Been a Lie
- By Nathan Kalman-Lamb, Jay M. Smith, and Stephen T. Casper, The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 6, 2021 {{DEFAULTSORT:Byers, Walter 1922 births 2015 deaths American sportswriters National Collegiate Athletic Association people National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees