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Walter Byers, first NCAA director, dies

Walters Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA, died on Tuesday at home near Emmett, Kan., the New York Times reported. He was 93.

Byers was born in Kansas City and graduated from Westport High. He worked in the Big Ten office in Chicago until 1951 when colleges decided to establish an operational office to govern sports programs. Byers was named the director and opened the office in Kansas City.

The NCAA had offices on 11th Street, in the Midland Theater, and on Shawnee Mission Parkway while Byers was in charge.

He oversaw remarkable growth in college sports, engineering the NCAA’s first national television rights contract in 1952 and subsequent packages that grew in the millions in rights fees.