Former IU president Myles Brand dies

NCAA president and former IU president Myles Brand died Wednesday. Brand, 67, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died in his home in Indianapolis.

Brand announced in January he had the disease and acknowledged that his prognosis was “not good.”  

He continued to run the NCAA. Brand appeared at the Final Four in March in Detroit and spoke at this year’s NCAA Convention.

Brand became NCAA president in 2003, the first former college president with that title.

IU women’s tennis coach Lin Loring said Brand’s resume gave the NCAA more credibility among other college presidents.

“I think college presidents have always been a little leery of college athletics and the NCAA,” Loring said. “When one of their own became president, I think it really helped as far as the institution of the NCAA.”

He joined IU as its 16th president in 1994. Brand will be remembered for creating the School of Informatics.

Board of Trustees member Patrick Shoulders said Brand’s influence can still be seen in the area of information technology.

On Sept. 10 the University announced a $10.1 million grant that would develop a program used to run supercomputers.

“You can trace that right back to Myles Brand’s leadership,” Shoulders said.

Brand was in charge when the University received a gift to one of its most prestigious schools. Ed Kelley donated $23 million to IU in 1997 for the Kelley School of Business.

IU men’s soccer coach Mike Freitag, an assistant coach during Brand’s reign as president, said Brand was always dedicated to improving IU’s academics. Even though Brand was president of the NCAA, Freitag said he was also respected by people outside athletics.  

“I think he’s a man who had a vision about what the University was about – about academics,” Freitag said. “He knew athletics was important to IU. He tried to make the commitment to both.”

Brand also began the post of vice president for diversity, now known as the vice president for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs.

“Myles Brand was an extraordinary visionary who understood better than any higher education leader I know the confluence between excellence and diversity,” said Charlie Nelms, the first IU vice president for diversity and current chancellor at North Carolina
Central University, in a press release.

Brand received national media attention in 2000 when he fired former IU men’s basketball coach Bob Knight.

Students protested Knight’s firing and burned representations of Brand at Bryan House, the president’s home. But others saluted his commitment to protecting players.

“He was a gentleman who stood up to his word,” Freitag said.

Shoulders said Brand will be remembered more for his academic initiatives than for his decision to fire Knight.

“His contributions to IU will transcend that,” Shoulders said.

Mike Davis, men’s basketball coach for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, replaced Knight in 2000. He resigned from the post in 2006.

“I was very sad to hear about the passing of Myles Brand,” Davis said. “He was a great man.”

Brand is survived by his wife, Peg, and his son, Josh.

“We’re saddened by his passing,” Freitag said, “but we’re fortunate to have him for the years we did.”