Highly acclaimed former U.Va. AD, NCAA head dies
His impact is ‘profound,’ Swofford says
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Gene Corrigan, a former Virginia athletic director who went on to be the Atlantic Coast Conference’s commissioner and the NCAA’s president, died at 91.
The ACC said Saturday he died “peacefully overnight surrounded by his family” in Charlottesville.
Corrigan was the ACC’s third full-time commissioner, serving from September 1987 until retiring in December 1996. While he was commissioner, the ACC added Florida State as its ninth member.
Corrigan served as NCAA president from 1995-97 and also worked as athletic director at U.Va. and Notre Dame before becoming the ACC commissioner.
“His impact on the ACC and college athletics was profound and immeasurable, only surpassed by his impact on the individuals he positively affected — and there are a multitude of us,” said John Swofford, who succeeded Corrigan as the ACC’s commissioner. “I will miss him immensely, but I am so grateful to have had him as a mentor, boss, friend and colleague for so many years.”
Corrigan’s son, North Carolina State athletic director Boo Corrigan, described him as someone who valued his family while working “in a profession where you can quickly lose sight of what’s most important.”
“Since I arrived at N.C. State, there’s hardly a day where someone doesn’t tell me about an interaction they had with my father and how it somehow made their day a little better,” Boo Corrigan said.
Gene Corrigan is survived by his wife, Lena, seven children ,19 grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren.