Guest speaker event featuring former NBA player Len Elmore

The Contemporary History Institute hosts the seventh annual Elizabeth Evans Baker Endowed Lecture featuring Len Elmore discussing “The Evolution and Revolution of College Sports” on Thursday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Baker Center Theater.

Elmore is a former collegiate basketball All-American at the University of Maryland at College Park, a ten-year professional player in both the ABA and NBA, an attorney, a television sports personality and an educator whose professional experience spans a rich athletic career, several prestigious law firms as well as significant business and public interest endeavors.

Upon conclusion of his basketball career in 1984, Elmore received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1987 as the first (and, to date, the only) NBA player to graduate from that institution.

Since 1987, he has served as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York, a senior counsel or partner for several name law firms, a sports agent and as CEO of three enterprises, including TestU, an education technology company, and iHoops, a youth sports joint venture of the NBA and the NCAA. Elmore served several years as Chairman of the Board and then President/Executive Director of the National Basketball Retired Players Association. He has also enjoyed a 31-year career as a network basketball commentator formerly for ESPN and CBS Sports and currently for Fox Sports.

Currently, Elmore is also a senior lecturer for Columbia University in the School of Professional Studies’ sports management program, where he was awarded the 2019 Dean’s Excellence Award. He also currently serves as a director on the board of a public company, 1800Flowers.com. He has also recently been reappointed to the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, where he served approximately 12 years as a commissioner.

“As a Columbia University professor, Harvard Law School alum, and former NBA great, Professor Elmore is well qualified to help us make sense of the profound changes afoot in collegiate sports and their implications for American universities,” said Alec Holcombe, associate professor of history and director of the Contemporary History Institute at Ohio University.

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served starting at 7:00 p.m. in the Baker Theater lounge.

“Professor Elmore will speak for approximately half an hour and then field questions from the audience,” said Holcombe. “He’s eager to hear people’s views on the complex issues raised by recent developments in college sports. We hope to see you there.”