It took our breath away yesterday with the passing of late NCAA President Myles Brand (1942-2009) who passed away after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer, the most deadly form of cancer. He was 57.

Here's how he will be remembered: "The first former college president to run college sports governing body, Brand WORKED TO CHANGE THE PERCEPTION THAT wins supersede (i.e. are more important than) academics and earned accolades for his efforts". In other words, Brand redefined student athletes. He "changed the perception" that student athletes don't have to keep up with their academic work.

Reacting to his death, Georgia president Michael Adams, who worked closely with Brand, said "Myles Brand's passing is a deep personal loss and an ever greater one to the NCAA and collegiate sports. I believe (that) Myles will be remembered as someone who helped us re-focus on the student in student-athlete AND HIS ACADEMIC REFORMS WILL LONG OUTLIVE HIM".

The first sentence is also significant: "Myles Brand, who fired Bob Knight as Indiana basketball coach and went on to become NCAA president, died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer". Here's yet another person with a controversial legacy: becoming prominent/making headlines by firing a coach. And this coach (Bob Knight) would go on to become a legend, actually one of college basketball all-time greats (Knight's career record is 902-371, a winning percentage of 0.708).

The next obvious question to ask is: why did Brand fire Knight? "Brand gained national attention in 2000 when he put Knight on a zero-tolerance policy AFTER A FORMER PLAYER ALLEGED THAT THE HUGELY SUCCESSFUL, BUT HOTHEADED COACH HAD CHOKED HIM DURING A PRACTICE EARLIER". OK, this player was not identified and we would have to go back years to find out exactly what he was referring to, but that kind of behavior is unacceptable, NO MATTER HOW LEGENDARY THE COACH IS.

OK, with that in mind, what is this Knight (or his son Pat) saying about Brand? According to Pat Knight, "Just because he fired us doesn't mean (that) we want anything bad to happen. That's sad NO MATTER WHO IT IS". Pat Knight is absolutely right. This illustrates a very important principle: business decisions should be separate from personal decisions/opinions. No one should ever hope or wish for someone to die.

NCAA executive vice-president Bernard Franklin released the following statement: "This was a man who understood the importance of higher education, as well as THE BENEFIT OF ATHLETICS AS PART OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE". Translation: in college, ACADEMICS should be the primary activity and athletics/sports a secondary supplement. "He did not waver from that as a tenet of NCAA operations".

According to former Kentucky athletic director CM Newton, "He worked very closely with the National Association of Basketball to really, not only listen, but hear what the coach's concerns were (without interrupting, which is very important). "He took that to the NCAA membership. He probably did that better than most any of his predecessors".

Finally, Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen was quite emotional: "I believe Myles provided a great deal of wise leadership to the NCAA and that his achievements in the academic area were VERY significant. I REGRET VERY MUCH HIS PASSING and that we will be deprived of his leadership in the future. I thought he did a tremendous job".