Cedric Warren Dempsey (born April 14, 1932) is a sports administrator who became the third executive director of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) from 1994 to 2003. Before leaving the post in 2002, Dempsey restructured the organization, cracked down on gambling in college sports, emphasized financial responsibility and negotiated major television contracts with

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. Dempsey served as the

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

at the University of the Pacific (1967–1979),

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

(1979),

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...

(1979–1982) and the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

(1983–1993). Dempsey's tenure at Arizona was noted for raising the university's national prominence in NCAA sports, particularly in basketball, football, softball and golf. He also served as Commissioner of the

All American Football League The All American Football League (AAFL) was a proposed professional american football minor league. The league, which was to combine a professional pay structure with the requirement that all players be college graduates, had originally been sch ...

(2007–2010).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dempsey, Cedric 1932 births Living people Albion Britons baseball players Albion Britons football players Albion Britons men's basketball coaches Albion Britons men's basketball players American men's basketball players Arizona Wildcats athletic directors College cross country coaches in the United States Houston Cougars athletic directors National Collegiate Athletic Association people Pacific Tigers athletic directors People from Gallatin County, Illinois San Diego State Aztecs athletic directors