CLEVELAND – University at Albany Vice President and Director of Athletics Lee McElroy will be inducted into the John McLendon Minority Athletics Administrators Hall of Fame, the John McLendon Minority Scholarship Foundation and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) jointly announced Monday. McElroy, who is in his 12 year at Albany, is the Chair of America East's Athletic Directors' Council.
The induction ceremony will be held on June 27, 2012 in conjunction with the 47th Annual NACDA Convention at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas.
McElroy, who served as NACDA president for 2006-07, oversees for Albany’s 19-sport Division I intercollegiate athletics program and directed the university's transition to Division I. He was recognized as the Under Armour Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Northeast Region Athletic Director of the Year in 2007 and earned the General Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletic Director Award from the All-American Football Foundation in 2004.
During his tenure, Albany has won 50 conference championships and made 19 NCAA appearances in men's basketball, men's and women’s lacrosse, softball, women's volleyball, baseball, women's field hockey and men's and women's track and field. In 2004-05, the Great Danes earned the America East Commissioner's Cup.
In 1998, McElroy was named to the NACDA Executive Committee for the University Division and chaired the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Committee. He currently serves on Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA) Board of Directors.
McElroy, who played football at UCLA in the late 1960s, was previously American University’s director of athletics for four years. He also spent time as the director of athletics at California State University Sacramento and worked at the University of Houston from 1981 to 1988 as assistant director of men’s and women’s sports and as associate director of athletics, and for one year as the director of athletics at The University of the District of Columbia.
Previous John McLendon Minority Athletics Administrators Hall of Fame Inductees
2010: Howard Gentry Sr. - the association's first minority officer in the 1970's while serving as director of athletics at Tennessee State.
2009: Gale Sayers -the first African-American athletics director in Division I (Southern Illinois)
2007: Gene Smith - the first African-American NACDA President
About the John McLendon Minority Postgraduate Scholarship Program:
The John McLendon Minority Postgraduate Scholarship Awards are presented to senior-level minority students who intend to pursue a graduate degree in athletics administration. If you have any questions regarding this program, please visit www.mclendonminorityfoundation.com.
Information from NACDA was used in this report.