Hall of Fame
A native of Evansville, Ind., Jim Byers of the University of Evansville is the seventh honoree in The Valley’s Lifetime Achievement category.
The Lifetime Achievement category honors, when appropriate, former players, coaches, administrators or alumni who competed, worked or attended a current league school.
Serving as head football coach from 1966 through 1976, he compiled second-highest winning percentage in UE history, winning four conference championships and leading the Purple Aces to the 1974 NCAA playoffs.
As Evansville director of athletics from 1977 to 1998, Byers brought back UE’s program from a tragic airplane crash involving the school’s men’s basketball team in 1977 -- Evansville’s first year at the Division I level.
He helped form both the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now Horizon League) and Heartland Collegiate Conference.
Providing leadership for the addition of women’s sports to the UE program and the evolution of the Purple Aces’ 16-sport athletics department, Byers saw Evansville qualify for 11 NCAA men’s soccer tournaments (including two Collegiate Cups appearances), four NCAA men’s basketball tournaments and two NITs and one NCAA baseball tournament.
The chief proponent of UE joining the MVC in 1993, he was chosen as recipient of the 2007 Gary Cunningham Lifetime Achievement Award by the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association in July.