ATCHLEY BACKED ACADEMICS AMID ATHLETICS CONTROVERSY

As president of Clemson University from 1979 to 1985, Bill Atchley didn't like what he saw at the South Carolina school.

The Division I school of 12,000 students symbolized what was wrong with college sports in the 1980s.

Clemson was cited with 75 NCAA violations. The school suffered through a sports probation, drug problems and steroid scandals.

Prior to Atchley assuming the presidency, the school was disciplined for basketball recruiting violations.

In 1982, its football program was placed on probation after winning a national championship.

In 1984, a track star died and traces of a drug were found in his blood.

Two coaches resigned after an investigation into prescription drug use at Clemson.

In a time when athletics was king at Clemson and other Division I schools, Atchley stood up for academics.

"I could see a lot of things that were wrong," he recalled. "You don't prostitute kids."

Atchley said he was the target of powerful athletic interests. The school's athletic director even tried to bribe him, offering him an expensive car.

The life of one of his daughter's was threatened.

Atchley resigned in the summer of 1985 because the school's board of trustees wouldn't support his efforts to clean up the athletic program.

While the board didn't support him, Atchley said the students and faculty did.

Ironically, athletics has been a big part of his life.

The Cape Girardeau native played three sports at Cape Central High School and was briefly a professional baseball player with the New York Giants organization in the early 1950s.