Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA who spent 36 years leading and shaping the organization that oversees college athletics, has died. He was 93.

Byers died Tuesday at his home in Emmett, Kansas, when a urinary tract infection spread into his bloodstream, son Fritz said Wednesday.

A main part of Byers’ job when he started as NCAA executive director in 1951 was to help the schools maintain strict control of all revenues the athletes generated. Then, the figures weren’t too impressive. Now, the deals for football and basketball rights are worth billions.

He helped invent the now widely used term “student-athlete,” which he said was intended to disguise the fact that players had become de facto professionals.

He was a big proponent of having the NCAA oversee women’s athletics as well and that came to fruition in the early 1980s.