ST. LOUIS – The Faculty Athletics Representatives Association honored late NCAA President Myles Brand by naming him the winner of the David Knight Award – the organization’s highest honor – at the group’s 20th Annual Meeting and Symposium last week.

Bernard Franklin, NCAA executive vice president of governance and membership affairs, accepted the award on Brand’s behalf.

Brand regularly attended the FARA annual meeting, and Franklin urged the faculty representatives in St. Louis to take that message to heart.

“During his tenure, Myles attended a number of meetings, but I know for a fact that this meeting was one of his most favorite occasions to attend as NCAA president,” Franklin said. “As a former faculty professor, Myles felt right at home with this group.”

The David Knight Award, named for the distinguished faculty athletics representative at North Carolina-Greensboro, is given annually to a person who has dedicated extraordinary service to FARA. Knight died in 2003 after a battle with cancer.

Knight, who served as the first chair of the Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet, was influential in the early stages of the current academic-reform movement, helping Division I develop a data-based platform upon which to establish strengthened eligibility standards.

Brand, who died of cancer on September 16, was heralded for his devotion to reform through the creation of the Academic Progress Rate and the establishment of the Graduation Success Rate – initiatives that came with strong faculty support.

“Myles realized the essential role that FARs play in the oversight of intercollegiate athletics,” Franklin said. “Myles was a true believer in the importance in the integration of academics and athletics.”

Franklin urged the FARs to continue as catalysts in the academic-reform movement.

“Intercollegiate athletics is so much better off because Myles Brand had the courage, the tenacity and the persistence to be that voice to say we can have balance between academics and athletics,” Franklin said.

Byers and McKay winners honored

The Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship winners and the inaugural Jim McKay Scholarship recipients also were recognized at the FARA meeting.

Amy Massey, a former soccer student-athlete at Southern California, and Craig Sheedy, a former diver at Arizona, were the 2009 Byers winners. They both received $24,000 scholarships for postgraduate work.

Massey is currently attending the University of Oxford in England where she is pursuing a master’s degree in forced migration. Sheedy is in his first year of medical school at Vanderbilt.

Brian Brunner, a former quarterback at Central Michigan, and Anna Rynerzewska, a former tennis student-athlete at Florida State, were recognized as the McKay winners. The award was established in 2008 to honor the contributions of the legendary ABC sports announcer Jim McKay.

Brunner plans to pursue a master’s degree and Ph.D. in journalism. Rynerzewska, a native of Poland, is seeking a Ph.D. in mass communications and marketing.