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NCAA to recognize Frank as sixth Ford recipient
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The NCAA News
Former NCAA membership president and longtime athletics advocate James Frank has been selected to receive the NCAA President’s Gerald R. Ford Award.
Frank, former president at Lincoln University (Missouri) and commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, is the sixth recipient of the award given for significant leadership as an advocate for higher education and intercollegiate athletics over time.
NCAA President Myles Brand will present Frank the award January 12 during the opening business session of the 2008 NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. The NCAA will donate an honorarium to the institution of his choice for the benefit of student-athletes.
“At every stop along his career, from student-athlete to university president to his involvement in NCAA governance, James Frank has been a catalyst for important and positive change,” said Brand. “For more than 40 years, he has championed the values of diversity and inclusion within intercollegiate athletics.”
Frank holds a special place in NCAA history, serving as both the first African-American and the first college president to hold the positions of secretary-treasurer and president, the latter from 1981-83. In fact, he presided over the 1983 NCAA Convention at which delegates adopted the controversial Prop 48, which raised graduation rates through more stringent initial-eligibility standards.
Frank was at the forefront of other issues that changed NCAA history as well. He facilitated enhanced presidential collaboration through the NCAA Long-Range Planning Committee that led to a demographic change in Association leadership. He was a key force in bringing women’s championships under the NCAA umbrella, and he pushed for the advancement of women’s intercollegiate athletics within the NCAA structure through his assertion that “separate but equal” does not lead to equality.
In addition, former NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers and Frank began discussions in the late 1980s that led to the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee, a group devoted to inclusiveness in Association policy decisions.
A standout in basketball, baseball, and track and field, Frank received a bachelor’s degree in education from Lincoln and then spent two years as a first lieutenant in the Corp of Engineers before earning a master’s in education from Springfield College. In 1956, Frank returned to Lincoln as an assistant basketball coach for two years before being named head coach.
After receiving a doctorate from Springfield, he began teaching and coaching at Hunter College before serving as dean of students and vice president for academic affairs at Medgar Evers College. In 1973, Frank once again returned to Lincoln as the school’s president, the first alumnus to serve in that capacity. It was during his time at Lincoln that Frank became involved in the NCAA governance structure.
In 1983, Frank was named commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, where he served until 1998 to bring greater national recognition and publicity to the SWAC. Frank returned to the SWAC as interim commissioner from April 2001 to December 2002. Named one of the NCAA’s 100 most influential student-athletes in 2006, Frank has received numerous awards recognizing his devotion to college sports.
Previous winners of the Gerald R. Ford Award are University of Notre Dame President Emeritus Theodore Hesburgh; former Knight Commission chair William Friday; former United States Senator Birch Bayh; former University of California, Los Angeles, basketball coach John Wooden; and Christine Grant, former director of women’s athletics at the University of Iowa.
Ford was the 38th president of the United States, taking office in 1974 after President Richard Nixon resigned. Ford was president until 1977. His political career began in 1948 when he was elected to Congress from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He became House Minority Leader in 1965, a position he held until Nixon appointed him vice president in 1973.
Ford played football at the University of Michigan, where he participated on national championship teams in 1932 and 1933. He started every game at center his senior year and was voted most valuable player by his teammates. Ford received contract offers from the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions, which he turned down in favor of studying law at Yale University. Before beginning his law classes, Ford coached freshman football and boxing.
Ford died at the age of 93 in December 2006.
Frank, former president at Lincoln University (Missouri) and commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, is the sixth recipient of the award given for significant leadership as an advocate for higher education and intercollegiate athletics over time.
NCAA President Myles Brand will present Frank the award January 12 during the opening business session of the 2008 NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. The NCAA will donate an honorarium to the institution of his choice for the benefit of student-athletes.
“At every stop along his career, from student-athlete to university president to his involvement in NCAA governance, James Frank has been a catalyst for important and positive change,” said Brand. “For more than 40 years, he has championed the values of diversity and inclusion within intercollegiate athletics.”
Frank holds a special place in NCAA history, serving as both the first African-American and the first college president to hold the positions of secretary-treasurer and president, the latter from 1981-83. In fact, he presided over the 1983 NCAA Convention at which delegates adopted the controversial Prop 48, which raised graduation rates through more stringent initial-eligibility standards.
Frank was at the forefront of other issues that changed NCAA history as well. He facilitated enhanced presidential collaboration through the NCAA Long-Range Planning Committee that led to a demographic change in Association leadership. He was a key force in bringing women’s championships under the NCAA umbrella, and he pushed for the advancement of women’s intercollegiate athletics within the NCAA structure through his assertion that “separate but equal” does not lead to equality.
In addition, former NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers and Frank began discussions in the late 1980s that led to the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee, a group devoted to inclusiveness in Association policy decisions.
A standout in basketball, baseball, and track and field, Frank received a bachelor’s degree in education from Lincoln and then spent two years as a first lieutenant in the Corp of Engineers before earning a master’s in education from Springfield College. In 1956, Frank returned to Lincoln as an assistant basketball coach for two years before being named head coach.
After receiving a doctorate from Springfield, he began teaching and coaching at Hunter College before serving as dean of students and vice president for academic affairs at Medgar Evers College. In 1973, Frank once again returned to Lincoln as the school’s president, the first alumnus to serve in that capacity. It was during his time at Lincoln that Frank became involved in the NCAA governance structure.
In 1983, Frank was named commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, where he served until 1998 to bring greater national recognition and publicity to the SWAC. Frank returned to the SWAC as interim commissioner from April 2001 to December 2002. Named one of the NCAA’s 100 most influential student-athletes in 2006, Frank has received numerous awards recognizing his devotion to college sports.
Previous winners of the Gerald R. Ford Award are University of Notre Dame President Emeritus Theodore Hesburgh; former Knight Commission chair William Friday; former United States Senator Birch Bayh; former University of California, Los Angeles, basketball coach John Wooden; and Christine Grant, former director of women’s athletics at the University of Iowa.
Ford was the 38th president of the United States, taking office in 1974 after President Richard Nixon resigned. Ford was president until 1977. His political career began in 1948 when he was elected to Congress from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He became House Minority Leader in 1965, a position he held until Nixon appointed him vice president in 1973.
Ford played football at the University of Michigan, where he participated on national championship teams in 1932 and 1933. He started every game at center his senior year and was voted most valuable player by his teammates. Ford received contract offers from the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions, which he turned down in favor of studying law at Yale University. Before beginning his law classes, Ford coached freshman football and boxing.
Ford died at the age of 93 in December 2006.
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