The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics named Dave Hart Jr. the recipient of the 42^nd James J. Corbett Memorial Award. Hart is the former athletics director at Florida State and East Carolina.

The Corbett Award honors an administrator who “typified Corbett’s devotion to intercollegiate athletics and worked unceasingly for its betterment.”

A past NACDA president, Hart served on the association’s executive committee for three years in the 1990s. In addition to the award, Hart will be granted an honorary degree from the Sports Management Institute sponsored by NACDA and Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Southern California and Texas.

"I am both honored and humbled to have been selected as the recipient of the James J. Corbett Award," stated Hart. "I fully appreciate the significance of this recognition within the profession of collegiate athletics administration. To be chosen by peers for such a distinguished honor is something I will truly cherish. I've been blessed to have worked at outstanding universities with wonderful staffs, coaches, student-athletes, faculties and fan bases. This award is really a reflection of their collective efforts."

While at Florida State, Hart was involved in intercollegiate athletics on a conference and national level in addition to his responsibilities with the Seminoles. A leader in the diversity movement, Hart hired Florida State’s first African-American head men’s basketball coach and worked with other leaders on diversity concerns. He played a role in the expansion of the Atlantic Coast Conference and in the negotiations of ACC broadcast agreements.

Hart is serving as an advisor to the ACC.

Corbett, then athletics director at Louisiana State, was NACDA’s first president in 1965. The award is the highest bestowed by NACDA.