June 8, 2007

Orlando, Florida - The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) kicked off its 42nd Annual Convention earlier today, attracting close to 2,000 administrators.

The Keynote Session featuring Tom Brokaw, NBC News Special Correspondent and former "NBC Nightly News" anchor, who said, "My number one sport is your world, intercollegiate athletics. Your world represents the best and brightest of this country."

Brokaw used the forum to exhort attendees to be "the next greatest generation."

"We're here in one of the great entertainment capitals of the world," he stated. You're celebrating the great place of your profession in our culture" while it is nighttime in Iraq, where young men and women are serving in the armed forces.

"They believe in their hearts and their minds," said Brokaw, "that they need to be where they are so we can be where we are. While they're there we're not being asked to sacrifice anything. Therefore it's up to us, I think, from the ground up... to find a way to reach out to those families, not just episodically, but to find a means of letting them know we're aware of their sacrifices."

He added, "However you feel about the war, whether you support it, whether you're confused by it, or whether you think it's time to bring it to a halt, we have an obligation as citizens to honor the warrior and to honor the warrior's family. I would hope that your schools you will use the extraordinary power you have to reach out to those families. I can tell you that all you represent, the greatness of this country, you give us reasons to cheer every day. That's your currency and I would hope you would use some of that currency to invest in the hearts of those families with loved ones abroad."

Brokaw summarized the attitude of the World War II generation, that "there was never, ever a diminution of American optimism. We prevailed because we were one," and related an anecdote from his book, "The Greatest Generation," concluding, "The young men and women for whom you are responsible have the same measure of greatness."

The Friday luncheon featured the presentation of the James J. Corbett Memorial Award, the highest honor one can achieve for athletics administration, to Fred Miller,

In accepting, Miller said, "NACDA is an educational arm of athletics and it does a fantastic job. If I had to start all over again I'd do the same thing. I think all of us are a little bit lucky to get involved in this."

Miller added, "Money is not a nasty word. The best thing about athletics is the fact that we pour these dollars into our programs and we graduate thousands and thousands of kids. It should bring a smile to your face because you're doing good work."

In concluding, Miller said, "I appreciate what all of you have done for college athletics. So don't be embarrassed about people saying we're doing too much to chase a buck."

Also presented at the luncheon was the NACDA/NIT Athletics Directors Award, to Frank Broyles, men's athletics director at the University of Arkansas; the SportsBusiness Journal Athletics Director of the Year Award to Tim Jurich from the University of Louisville, director of athletics at the University of Florida; the Coca-Cola Community All-American Awards; and the AstroTurf AD of the Year Awards. Serving as luncheon emcee was Holly Rowe of ESPN.