Led SMU after football scandal

William B. Stallcup Jr., 87, the interim president of Southern Methodist University in the aftermath of the 1980s football scandal, died June 7 at his home in Ranchos de Taos, N.M., after a long illness, the school announced.

He was named interim president in 1986 after the abrupt retirement of President L. Donald Shields when the university was sanctioned by the NCAA.

Widespread cheating prompted the NCAA to cancel the Dallas school’s 1987 football season. The team, the only one ever hit with the NCAA “death penalty,” has had just one winning season since.

Stallcup presided over sweeping reforms in the athletics programs and governance structure.

A native of Dallas, Stallcup received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Southern Methodist in 1941. He served in the Army Air Forces in World War II. During the Korean War he was recalled to active duty by the Air Force to teach pre-med students at the University of Kansas, where he also earned a doctorate in zoology.

He began his tenure at Southern Methodist as a biology professor but spent half of his four decades at the university in administrative positions. He was interim president from November 1986 to August 1987, then returned to teaching before retiring in 1989.