Thirty years ago this week marked one of the key moments in the founding of the University Athletic Association when the University of Rochester served as host to chief executive officers from 10 institutions, nine of which would become the original members of the Association.
Informal discussions and relationships developed in the early 1980’s. In 1984, Washington University Chancellor William Danforth and Rochester President Dennis O’Brien attended a convention of the American Association of Universities and their discussions at that conference were a precursor to the 1985 meeting in Rochester.
The October 9, 1985 meeting included presidents, chancellors, vice-presidents, deans, faculty, and administrators. One of the key conversations of the meeting was the philosophical rationale for a new athletic grouping based in large measure on the groundwork that had been laid when Harry Kisker, vice provost and dean of student affairs at Washington, visited campuses describing the potential that might be derived from a new athletic association.
The meeting included several representatives who played huge roles in the success of the UAA for extended periods of time, including Russ Hamberger and Dick Rasmussen, who are still a part of the Association to this day. Hamberger, a consistent and vocal supporter of the UAA, is the Associate Provost at NYU and Rasmussen continues to serve as the only Executive Director in Association history. Hamberger has twice served as chair of the UAA Executive Committee as well as treasurer of the Association multiple times. Not surprisingly, Rasmussen was responsible for developing the briefing materials and financial projections for the competitive models discussed during the meeting.
O'Brien, who had also been involved in developing a unique competitive agreement between the Patriot League and Ivy League while he was president at Bucknell University, retired as Rochester president in 1994 and is currently a well-known writer and philosopher.
Danforth retired in 1995 after 24 years as chancellor at Washington and the main campus was renamed “Danforth Campus” in 2006. He and Kisker are both part of the Washington University Athletics Hall of Fame.
L. Jay Oliva was the NYU chancellor when he attended the meeting in 1985 and would eventually become the school’s first faculty member to become president when he did so in 1991. Oliva, who was one of the most ardent supporters of the concept of the UAA, retired in 2002. He passed away on April 17, 2014.
Dr. William Fox was associated with Emory University for 43 years before his retirement in 2005. He was a strong supporter of the athletic and academic excellence of the UAA and Emory, where he oversaw the planning and opening of the Woodruff Physical Education Center. He passed away on April 11, 2014.
Dr. John "Pat" Crecine served as the first chair of the UAA Executive Committee. His vision and entrepreneurship provided the Association with technology resources that immediately placed the Association on the cutting edge of electronic communications and enabled the Association to develop a strong communication network despite the broad geographic distribution of its members. He left Carnegie Mellon in 1987 to become the president of Georgia Tech. Crecine passed away on April 28, 2008.