Remembering A Legend

On Saturday, Fred Jacoby, the first commissioner of the American Southwest Conference, passed away after suffering from cancer. Jacoby was the commissioner of the Southwest Conference in the 1980’s and had a distinguished career in college athletics and was known as a true advocate for the student-athlete.

Jacoby will receive many well deserved tributes as we reflect on his career. There is likely no athletic director in our conference who did not count Fred as a friend and who valued his expertise. He enjoyed passing on his considerable knowledge of NCAA legislation to anyone who needed his guidance. Before his health began to cause him problems, he loved to attend conference athletic events as he was a regular at the conference softball tournament. When he first took over the conference, he made a point to visit as many of the schools in the league as possible. Not bad work for somebody who had taken over as commissioner in his seventies when many thought he had retired.

And while Fred deserves all of the accolades from the professional world, it was the dignity that he showed in the last two years of his personal life that will always stay with me. Fred never complained about his illness and the pain he had to endure as he went thru chemotherapy. I talked to him once after a grueling session of chemo and he refused to talk about his pain. Instead he told me the story about how he as he and his wife sat in the waiting room for his session. In the hospital waiting room with him were the parents of a nine year old boy, who was awaiting treatment for brain cancer. Fred was quick to the point.“How can I dare complain about my circumstances after seeing a nine year old boy suffer with this disease?” I think it took me a full minute to respond.

Fred’s family and friends would talk about the pain that Fred endured and that was the only way many of us knew about Fred’s suffering. I am sure that he would have scolded anyone for letting details out about his health; he did not want your sympathy, Fred only wanted you to be the same person you had been with him before the cancer attacked. In the last week of his life the doctors asked him if he wanted any medication to ease the pain. Fred responded that if the medicine was for research purposes and could possibly help somebody in the future, he would take it, otherwise, he politely told the doctors that he would prefer to do without.

There are many of us in the professional world who admired Fred and the way he was able to resolve issues and find a common ground when there appeared to be none. We will always admire him for a life well-lived; we can also only hope we will have the courage he displayed when our time comes.