Gothard Lane

Gothard Lane is a U.S athletic administrator. He is currently the Director of Intercollegiate Championships at the Eastern College Athletic Conference ((ECAC)) where he supervises 98 conference championships involving over 19,000 student-athletes.

Lane was born in Washington, D.C. in 1946. Attending public schools in Southern New Jersey, he was an wide receiver in football and an accomplished high jumper in track and field at Pennsauken High School. He continued to play football at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, graduating in 1969 with a B.A. degree in English.

After graduation, Lane started his career in college athletics as a football coach, his initial efforts culminating in a position at the University of Maryland, College Park under head coach Jerry Claiborne. At Maryland his teams frequently enjoyed trips to post-season bowl games after successful seasons. He soon moved from coaching to athletic administration, eventually becoming Associate Athletic Director for Varsity Sports at Maryland, where he oversaw several teams that won NCAA Division One national championships. Many coaches whom he hired and supervised, including Sasho Cirovski and Cindy Timchal, won both Atlantic Coast Conference and national championships. Lane also served as the department's Equity Administrator, with responsibility for ensuring fairness in hiring practices and treatment of woman and minorities.

Lane also served in the university's Department of Campus Recreation where he supervised undergraduate recreation facilities at Maryland. In 1999, he was hired as the athletic director St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York. There he oversaw sixteen varsity sports, including the Bonnies' popular Division One basketball program.

His transition to the new job was a smooth one until 2002, when it came to light that the basketball team, with the approval of campus President Robert Wickenheiser, had been competing with a player who should not have been ruled eligible for NCAA competition.The team was ruled ineligible for post-season competition, and disbanded without completing their season.

During the subsequent NCAA investigation, it was revealed that Lane had attempted to intervene but to no avail, with both Wickenheiser and the school's Board of Trustees, to prevent the ineligible player from joining the team. President Wickenheiser and the basketball coach were dismissed. Lane resigned and left the university in May 2003. More tragically, in the aftermath of the scandal, William Swan, chairman of the Board of Trustees, whom Lane had contacted asking for help in controlling the president, committed suicide as a result of his role in sullying the reputation of his alma mater.

The NCAA never charged Lane with any violations or imposed any penalties against him with regard to the case. Wickenheiser, the university's president, was found to have violated two NCAA rules including unethical conduct.

In the subsequent three years, Lane pursued other opportunities in intercollegiate athletics. In 2005 he was selected as Director of Championships for the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

In February 2006, Sr. Margaret Carney, OSF, President of St. Bonaventure University wrote the following statement, “St. Bonaventure University acknowledges that, in the NCAA’s August 15, 2003 Notice of Allegations to the University, the NCAA’s Enforcement Staff did not identify former Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, Gothard Lane, to be an individual at risk in any of the alleged violations involved in its case. In addition, the University agrees that the NCAA Committee on Infractions did not make any findings or impose any penalties against Mr. Lane in its February 19, 2004 St. Bonaventure University Public Infractions Report."