The NCAA News - News and Features

May 19, 1997

Corrigan receives NACDA's Corbett Memorial Award

Eugene F. Corrigan, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference and current NCAA president, has been chosen by the honors and awards committee of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to be the recipient of the 31st James J. Corbett Memorial Award.

The award is presented annually to the athletics administrator who "through the years has most typified Corbett's devotion to intercollegiate athletics and has worked unceasingly for its betterment." Corbett, former athletics director at Louisiana State University, was NACDA's first president in 1965. The award is considered the highest honor one can achieve for athletics administration.

In addition, Corrigan will receive an honorary degree from the Sports Management Institute (SMI), an educational institute sponsored by the University of Southern California; University of South Carolina, Columbia; University of Notre Dame; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and NACDA.

Corrigan became the third full-time commissioner of the ACC in September 1987. In his first eight years in the office, ACC universities captured 28 NCAA championships (10 men's and 18 women's) and two national football titles (Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991 and Florida State University in 1993).

He was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the college football Bowl Alliance, which guarantees a major bowl berth for the ACC champion. He also secured berths for second, third and fourth ACC football teams in the Gator, Peach and Carquest Bowls, respectively.

Corrigan served as a NACDA officer while he was athletics director at Notre Dame. He reached the ranks of first vice-president before stepping down when he assumed the role of ACC commissioner. He was the recipient of one of NACDA's Awards for Administrative Excellence in 1994.

In addition to serving as NCAA president, he has been a member of the NCAA Special Advisory Committee to Review Recommendations Regarding Distribution of Revenues, and chaired the NCAA Special Committee on Cost Reduction, NCAA Division I Championships Committee and NCAA Men's Lacrosse Committee. He also has served on the NCAA Executive Committee, NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee, NCAA Division I Steering Committee and the NCAA Council.

Corrigan is chair of the Honors Court and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. He has served as president of the Collegiate Commissioners Association and the United States Lacrosse Coaches Association.

In 1955, Corrigan entered the collegiate coaching ranks as the coach of basketball, soccer and lacrosse at Washington and Lee University. He also coached at the University of Virginia, where he later served as sports information director. He served two years as ACC assistant commissioner/service bureau director of the ACC before being named athletics director at Washington and Lee in 1967. He also was AD at Virginia (1971-1980) before coming AD at Notre Dame (1981-1987).

On receiving word of the award, Corrigan said, "As five decades in college athletics come to a close, I can simply say that receiving the NACDA Corbett Award, presented by the group which I hold in the highest esteem, represents my highest honor.

"Coaching is what got me into college athletics, but administration is what allowed me to make it a career. My 18 years spent as an athletics director, at three wonderful institutions, involved me in a cross-section of university life that is virtually impossible to replicate in any other position. Coaches, student-athletes, parents, faculty, university presidents, other administrators -- the people I was lucky to work for and learn from have been important models for my life. My experience has been that the vast majority share some things in common: a devotion to maintaining integrity of intercollegiate athletics and to advancing the welfare of the student-athlete. Intercollegiate athletics has the wonderful opportunity to show young people in this country how to behave -- and how to respect achievement -- and must do that."