Dempsey Takes Top NCAA Post

Facing almost as many questions about the past as the present, Cedric Dempsey was introduced Friday as the third executive director in NCAA history.

Dempsey will leave the University of Arizona, where he has served as athletic director since 1982, to take over the NCAA’s top administrative position in early January.

He will replace Dick Schultz, who announced his resignation in May after the release of a report contradicting his claim that he was unaware of improper loans to athletes at the University of Virginia.

Schultz had served as Virginia’s athletic director for six years when he was picked to replace Walter Byers, the NCAA’s first executive director, in 1987.

Referring to the recent work of Schultz and the NCAA Presidents Commission, Dempsey said: “I look forward to picking up the baton from Dick--the baton of reform.”

Dempsey built his reputation as the architect of one of the Pacific 10 Conference’s most successful programs, but the time he spent at a troubled Southwest Conference school, the University of Houston, was the dominant theme at a news conference in Overland Park, Kan.

Citing a long list of infractions, the NCAA placed the Houston football program on three years’ probation in 1988.

Dempsey, Houston athletic director from 1979 to 1982, was not implicated, but many of the violations--including a play-for-pay scheme orchestrated by Cougar coaches--were found to have occurred during his tenure.

According to the Committee on Infractions’ report on the Houston case, the university did not properly control the football program mainly because the athletic department “structure” did not allow for such control.

Asked Friday about the Houston situation, Dempsey said he brought the matter up when he was interviewed by the executive director search committee.

“Obviously, with the situation involving Dick (and Virginia), I was concerned about (the Houston case),” he said, “and wanted the committee up front to be aware of that background and do (an investigation) with all due diligence.

“I’ve never been concerned about (his role in the case). In fact, I really never read the (Committee on Infractions’) report, since no one (from the NCAA) ever talked to me (about it) until this past June. I never felt I was involved.”

NCAA President Joseph Crowley, chairman of the search committee, said his panel studied the Houston infractions report and discussed it with Dempsey. Crowley said the Houston case “did not alter our confidence in Cedric as our choice for executive director.”