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GREENSBORO - In his most high-profile move since a student collapsed and died in an unofficial track practice, N.C. A&T Chancellor Harold Martin fired athletics director Wheeler Brown on Friday.
"I commit to you that I will take constructive steps to move our athletics program in a different direction," Martin said during a news conference at the school.
Brown's dismissal comes nearly two months after sophomore Jospin "Andre" Milandu, 20, of Knightdale, died on Aug. 19 due to complications of sickle cell trait. He was one of several students participating in the tryout without medical paperwork required by the NCAA.
The university has already reported the violation to the sanctioning body for intercollegiate athletics.
At the news conference, Martin said that he had "discontinued the employment" of Brown. He did not specify why Brown was let go and did not respond to follow-up questions sent via e-mail Friday.
Brown played football at A&T from 1974 to 1978. He joined the school in 2002 as an associate athletics director and was chosen to lead the department in 2008. He earned an annual salary of $125,000. His contract would have ended Aug. 11, 2011.
Brown did not return phone calls for comment Friday.
Milandu's was the second death connected to the sickle cell trait under Brown's tenure. In 2008, football player Chad Wiley died during a practice of complications from heat stroke and was found later to have sickle cell trait.
After that, university officials said A&T would screen athletes for sickle cell trait. The NCAA made screenings a rule earlier this year.
An autopsy report from the N.C. Medical Examiner, released Thursday, showed that Milandu's death was related to sickle cell trait.
The NCAA-required screening during a physical could have discovered that trait and possibly saved Milandu's life, according to a physician who studies sickle cell trait deaths.
"This is just tragic, and it's happening over and over and over," said Dr. Randy Eichner, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
Eichner, who has worked with the NCAA and National Athletic Trainers' Association on sickle cell trait policy, said it was the first case of a sickle cell trait-related death that he's heard of in track and field.
At A&T, Deborah Callaway, special assistant to the chancellor, will oversee the athletics department. An interim athletics director will be named within the week, Martin said, and a national search for Brown's replacement is under way.
A&T officials assigned by Martin investigated the events around Milandu's death and found that he was one of 29 students without a physical at a tryout supervised by track and field coach Roy Thompson.
A&T's NCAA compliance director, Darryl Hills, filed a violation report to the NCAA, saying the school broke an NCAA rule requiring physicals for student athletes. The tryout also violated A&T policies requiring that liability waivers be signed by students and that athletic trainers be made available for the practice.
"A tryout, in this case, had been allowed to occur outside of our polices and best practices," Martin said, when asked to specify A&T's mistakes.
Thompson has indicated the school has had a history of allowing waivers instead of physicals for tryouts - a violation of NCAA policy.
Thompson was not available for comment Friday. He announced in September that he would retire Dec. 1.
The A&T waiver, signed by a student before a sport's tryout, releases A&T from legal responsibility and allows students to claim they have had a recent physical.
A&T officials denied that waivers were used instead of physicals.
But a rule in the school's athletic trainers' manual allows students to participate in limited physical activity for two weeks after signing a waiver.
Martin previously said that A&T did not have such a waiver from Milandu, who was not approved to be in the tryout.
Thompson has said that Milandu showed up and joined the practice Aug. 19.
After about two laps of running, Milandu collapsed. He was later taken to Moses Cone Hospital, where he died.
Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt @news-record.com THE EVENTS FOLLOWING JOSEPH MILANDU'S DEATH
Aug. 19: An unofficial track and field practice is held by head coach Roy Thompson, at which Milandu collapsed and later died.
Aug. 31: A&T files notice of a violation with the NCAA for allowing "several" students to participate in an organized tryout without medical examinations .
Sept. 8: A&T Chancellor Harold Martin announces that an NCAA rule had been violated: There were 29 students without physicals on file before the tryout. Other A&T policies were broken, he said, and the university would emphasize NCAA regulations and start a review of its athletics training manual.
Sept. 21: Thompson announces that he will retire Dec. 1 after 26 seasons as head coach, and that the university has historically allowed waivers in place of physicals for tryouts.
Oct. 2: A&T cannot provide a copy of Thompson's employment contract.
Oct. 8: A&T officials say that it does not allow waivers in place of physicals. Thompson says that 13 students at the tryout had physicals on file at the campus infirmary, while nine did not.
Oct. 14: The North Carolina medical examiner's office releases an autopsy report. Milandu's death was linked to sickle cell trait.
Oct. 15: Martin fires athletics director Wheeler Brown.
news-record.com: Go online to hear N.C. A&T Chancellor Harold Martin's remarks from a news conference Friday.
Chancellor Harold Martin pledges "constructive steps" to change the school's athletics program.
