Charles Alan Wright, an attorney who served as chair of the NCAA Committee on Infractions during a key period in the development of the Association's enforcement program, died July 7.

Wright had been in a hospital since June 14 and died of complications from lung surgery. He was 72.

Wright, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, was a member of the infractions committee from 1973-83 and chaired the group from 1978-83. He was a nationally recognized expert on due process and assisted the NCAA at a time when the NCAA enforcement program was experiencing major challenges in the courts and Congress.

David Berst, NCAA Division I chief of staff, worked closely with Wright when Berst served on the enforcement staff.

"Before he became a member, and later chair, of the Committee on Infractions in the 1970s, Charlie was universally recognized as a legal scholar, constitutional law expert and person of unyielding integrity and principles," Berst said. "His interest in athletics issues was pursued with the same passion as his other endeavors and his service to the NCAA came at a time when concepts of institutional and individual due process were significant issues before the Association.

"Those on all sides of any debate recognized that Charlie was just the right thoughtful, careful and knowledgeable person to be in the eye of the storm and that he would provide the right guidance to the NCAA. In the early 1990s he served as chair of the first Administrative Review Panel during the development of procedures for the panel to waive the normal application of NCAA rules under extraordinary circumstances.

"His ability to recall obscure details about alleged recruiting violations and affidavits, his curiosity about the conduct of coaches and athletes, the vivid pictures he could paint with words, his pride when talking about his family or the Legal Eagles (the law school intramural football team he coached), and his 30-year boycott of the NCAA's writing style that related to the fine points of correct grammar will be missed greatly."

Beyond the NCAA, Wright served as consultant to the counsel to President Nixon and was known for his defense of Nixon's attempts to keep private tapes the president made in the Oval Office.

While his arguments against releasing the Nixon tapes earned him national exposure as an eminent constitutional authority and praise for his courtroom arguments, his role in Watergate also resulted in a hostile public reaction for taking an unpopular position.

"I cannot be happy -- nobody could be happy -- with diminishment of a reputation as an independent legal scholar," Wright said in 1973. "But if tarnishing my reputation is the price for saving the presidency and this president, then so be it. I'm not bitter. I have no second thoughts about my role in the tapes case."

Wright argued 12 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and won 10.

He was president of the American Law Institute, the nation's leading organization on legal reform. He also was the author of the 54-volume Federal Practice and Procedure, which has become an essential legal resource.

At Texas, he held an endowed chair that was also named for him. Wright taught for 50 years, 45 of them at Texas.