Jan 14, 2010 4:46:55 PM

ATLANTA – Honoring the memory and legacy of its late president, the NCAA announced today it is donating $500,000 to the Myles Brand Chair in Cancer Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.

The announcement was made at the opening business session of the NCAA Convention in Atlanta, where Brand also was posthumously honored with the NCAA President's Gerald R. Ford Award for significant contributions to intercollegiate athletics.

"The lasting statement Myles made regarding the life he chose to live as an academic was lending his name to research that someday will find a cure to the disease that claimed his life," said Michael Adams, president of the University of Georgia and former chair of the NCAA Executive Committee during the last three years of Brand's presidency at the NCAA. "We are proud to be supporting that effort."

Funding for the permanent endowed chair at the IU School of Medicine will support a world-class researcher with expertise in pancreatic and other gastrointestinal cancers.

Brand was NCAA president from January 2003 until his death on September 16, 2009, after a nine-month fight against pancreatic cancer. He was 67. Before joining the NCAA, he served as Indiana's 16th president from 1994 to 2002.

"Throughout his career – and his life – Myles put the education of students and excellence in research first. He was also a man of great integrity, wisdom, and courage," said Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie. "All of us at IU are enormously grateful for this gift from the NCAA in honor of one of the university's finest and most visionary leaders. Through this generous gift, Myles' legacy will grow even larger and we will further his vision of one day conquering this deadly disease."

Support for the Brand Chair now includes 338 individual gifts and pledges totaling more than $2.7 million with the NCAA donation, according to Indiana University.

The Myles Brand Chair in Cancer Research is the only memorial campaign that bears his name. He made the decision during the final months of his life, at urging of many friends, to lend his name to raise funds to support cancer research at IU. The university has committed $1 million in matching funds for the endowed chair.

Donations for the Brand Chair are still being accepted and can be made online at or by contacting the Office of Gift Development at the IU School of Medicine, P.O. Box 660245, Indianapolis, IN, 46266-0245 or 317-274-3270.

Honorary chairs for the Brand Chair campaign are McRobbie; U.S. Sens. Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar; Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels; NBA Commissioner David Stern; George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN Inc. and ABC Sports; William Cook, Cook Group founder; Daniel F. Evans Jr., president and chief executive officer, Clarian Health; Stephen L. Ferguson, chairman of the board of Cook Group and a member of the IU Board of Trustees; and Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports.