Walter Byers (March 13, 1922 – May 26, 2015) was an American sports executive and sportswriter. He was the firstexecutive director of theNational Collegiate Athletic Association.[1]
Byers was born inKansas City.[2] He graduated fromWestport High School.[2] He never played athletics, and though he took classes at theUniversity of Iowa, he did not graduate from college.[3][4]
Byers began his career as aUnited Press reporter.[3] He left wire service journalism to take a job as an assistant sports information director with theBig Ten Conference.[3]
In 1951 Byers was a 29-year-old former Big Ten assistant sports-information director who had never headed anything.[5] That year, Byers was appointed the firstexecutive director of theNational Collegiate Athletic Association, a job that did not have a description.[6]
He served from 1951 to 1988.[7] He urged the creation of theUnited States Basketball Writers Association in 1956.[8] Byers helped expand the NCAA men's basketball tournament in from 8 to 16 teams.[9] Byers negotiated TV contracts that preempted individual colleges' rights on the way to building a billion-dollar business, leading to a 1984U.S. Supreme Court ruling that freed the colleges to negotiate on their own.[10] he died on May 26 2015.
In 1970 the NCAA -- in a decision in which Byers was involved -- banned Yale from participating in all NCAA sports for two years. The decision was made in reaction to Yale -- against the wishes of Byers and the NCAA -- playing its Jewish centerJack Langer in college games after Langer had played for Team United States at the1969 Maccabiah Games in Israel with the approval of Yale PresidentKingman Brewster.[11][12][13][14] The decision impacted 300 Yale students, every Yale student on its sports teams, over the next two years.[15][16][17]
Byers famously dislikedUniversity of Nevada-Las Vegas basketball coachJerry Tarkanian, with whom he was very much at odds, and said "Tark’s black players play a fast city-lot basketball without much style. Grab ball and run like hell, not lots of passing to set up the shots.”[18] He described U.N.L.V.’s style as “ghetto run-and-shoot basketball” with little concern for defense.[18] Coincidentally, Tarkanian died less than four months before Byers.
The New York Times said that Byers was sometimes known as "That power-mad Walter Byers," and described him as "secretive, despotic, stubborn and ruthless."[19][18]WFAN talk show hostMike Francesa referred to him as an "Oz-like" figure who ran the NCAA with ultimate control.The Harvard Crimson described him as "power-mad."[20] Byers was also described as a "petty tyrant."[21][22][23]The Chicago Sun-Times described his "reign" as "near-dictatorial," andThe Washington Post likewise described him as a dictator.[5][24][25]
In his bookUnsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes[26] Byers turned against the NCAA.[26] He said it 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).[26] Byers said thatCongress should enact a "comprehensive College Athletes' Bill of Rights."[26] 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. . . , [one which] 'operat[es] an air-tight racket of supplying cheap athletic labor.'"[26]
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