Austin Peay State University Athletics

Bruce Myers most visible position, at least from an athletics standpoint, is as scorekeeper for men's basketball games. That is because he is the only one wearing a striped shirt along the scorer's table, connecting him to the game officials, who are the only other bodies wearing striped shirts.  

He will end his career handling men's basketball score keeping Feb. 18 when the Dunn Center will close as home for the basketball Govs after nearly 50 years.  

Dr. Myers has kept the scorebook for 46 seasons (he missed a season because of the pandemic) for Austin Peay, taking over as scorekeeper in 1976-77 (the Dunn Center's second season being home to the Govs), replacing Stan Kant, who moved east. Basically, Dr. Myers became well known as the Dunn Center scorekeeper by more than visiting Sports Information Directors.  

He is called an unsung hero by Cheryl Holt, Austin Peay's retired volleyball coach and assistant athletic director, but it has nothing to do with his score keeping duties. In fact, Myers served on the athletic committee from the late 1980s before becoming the Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) for 20 ½ years in 1995, a far less conspicuous but far more important position than basketball scorekeeper.  

"Don't think we could have had anyone better as FAR (Faculty Athletic Representative) than Bruce," Holt said. "You knew he always had the athletic department and the athletes' well-being at heart. I probably appreciate him more since I have retired than when I was there. The integrity of our athletic department was second to none and a lot of that had to do with him and Coach (and Athletics Director Dave) Loos." 

Myers became only the fifth Austin Peay FAR, following in the footsteps of Dr. Leon Bibb, his friend and mentor, and Dr. Gaines Hunt, who suggested Myers as his successor.   

"I was offered the position by (then-Athletics Director) Dr. (Kaye) Hart," Myers said. "According to Dr. Hart, Gaines Hunt said I was the only active (Athletic) Committee member that could do the job. I just accepted it on the spot when it was offered." 

In his role as FAR he was instrumental in APSU adopting priority registration which had a positive impact on not only student-athletes but also all scholarship students attending the university as well. He served on the NCAA Initial Eligibility Waiver Committee and NCAA Research Committee, the latter helping formulate data to help determine the Academic Progress Rate (APR). 

"Dr. Myers always has demonstrated his commitment to Austin Peay," Holt said. "He is just so smart. And he was willing to do it (the FAR position)—he wanted to do it. He was simply amazing to me. He was an unsung hero is the best way to put it because how many people would do what he did. We sincerely respected him—we may not aways liked what he was doing but we certainly respected him for doing what he was doing because no one else would do it." 

"He loves athletics and loved learning the rules and being a part of all that," said APSU Compliance Coordinator Tara Patterson, who has worked with Dr. Myers and Dr. Cindy Taylor, a University biology professor and Myers' successor as FAR. "He invested deeply in the role, the hard work that went into all of it. He understood athletics and what it meant and brought to campus. He fought for us across campus and was a staunch advocate for our athletes and department. His work ethic was tremendous - with everything else he had going on and the side gigs--and it was a lot! He managed to do it all and did it well. 

"His analytical mind loved figuring things out, particularly when it came to academic certification. Dr. Myers went through EVERY student-athlete's academic record and did degree audits -- this was before we had DegreeWorks program -- and had to do it by hand and check against the paper UnderGrad bulletin. It was tedious, painstaking work but he loved it and was EXTREMELY good at it. He knew those programs inside out." 

In addition, Myers helped lead APSU athletics through a pair of NCAA Certifications (2000, 2007) and through the NCAA Certification process served on NCAA Peer Review teams to review self studies of other NCAA institutions. 

"We were in the last cycle of certification (the first go-around)," Myers said. "Then we had the tornado and Dr. (Sal) Rinella decided to put it off for a year. We were the last school to be certified and as the FAR I had to set up a committee and we had to meet multiple times. Dr. (Becky) Glass and Dr. (Wayne) Chaffin kept me going I will say that. I think everything went pretty well.  

"Then we had another round of it and this time I was a certifier…so I did a bunch of visits--Albany, North Dakota State and Alabama State--before our own certification…Our certification went without any hitches. We were ready and it showed."  

"He made certification so easy," Patterson said. "He paid attention to detail, which would sometimes drive me bonkers, but in retrospect, it was wonderful.  Nothing got by him and it was always correct. He absolutely loved serving on committees - he liked learning that manual and loved the networking." 

A longtime member of the Governors Club, he was a member of the former booster organization's executive committee for nearly 25 years. He supported all the APSU athletic programs in a variety of ways and often was/still is in attendance at a multitude of contests. Myers was inducted into APSU's prestigious Red Coat Society in 2011; the society serves as the Hall of Fame of service. 

"I was always around athletics and I cared and enjoyed them since Day 1 when I got here," said Myers. "I started going to games in 1970 when I first got here. I loved keeping score and we started teaching computer science about the same time. I just loved being there."  

Myers also has served nearly 25 years as member of the University's Athletics Hall of Fame Committee. Dr. Myers was one of the co-recipients of the inaugural Ohio Valley Conference Thurston Banks Award for Distinguished Academic Service in 2013 and was joined on the floor of Municipal Auditorium by the conference's other FARs, displaying the greatest respect the other FARs had for Myers. 

"It was really gratifying for me to have all the FARs go out with me when I received the (Dr.) Thurston Banks Award at the OVC basketball tournament," Myers said. 

Back in Fall 2022, Myers was the recipient of the Austin Peay Alumni Outstanding Service Award, presented to him for all his years of service to APSU and its athletic department.   

"When I became FAR I was just (a professor) in math and computer science," Myers said. "I helped coordinate things but I was not the department head. It was several years later—in 2003—that computer science department was developed and I became the department head." 

Although he was department head of APSU's fastest-growing major, it was as FAR and his work for the athletics department where he gained his greatest notoriety--and not as basketball scorekeeper--at least from an unsung hero standpoint.  

"Back in my early days FAR was really interesting," Myers said. "Back then the NCAA had what it called one school-one vote. Well, I would go to the NCAA meetings because the three voting delegates were me, Dr. Rinella and Dr. Hart. But after that one year it became the federated structure. Then after Coach Loos became AD, I only went when he couldn't (because of basketball coaching duties)."

When Dr. Myers became FAR, the NCAA Manual was two inches thick. Each rule seemingly had six or seven if not more components. Now it is less than half of that and most of it is online. 

"When I got the FAR position, it was at the height of the NCAA having so many rules," Myers said. "They started simplifying rules—and it needed to be done.

"As FAR…I just enjoyed the people I got to work with really good and caring people. A lot of my interest was fueled by (former academic advisor) Joe Luckey, who could get people eligible but he wanted them to earn degrees as well."  

When Myers was initially FAR, he and the conference's other FARs spent hours going through NCAA rules, in particular, at compliance seminars. In fact, at one compliance seminar in the early 2000s, Myers was added to an NCAA committee that developed Academic Progress Rate (APR).  APR was passed by the NCAA in 2004. 

"I was at one of those compliance seminars and Thurston Banks told the (NCAA) representative that 'this is a guy that you need to have on your committee,'" Myers said. "Well, that was the start of the APR. They would meet for a day and would have all the data and they knew how to analyze it. They were looking for measure of success for a school. That is how they came up with the APR with the eligibility and retention.

"I was kind of there when it was formulated. The schools and teams that had APR penalties deserved it, at least in my opinion." 

He retired in August 2018 after 48 years of service to Austin Peay, as first a math teacher, later as a math and computer science teacher, Athletics Committee member, Faculty Athletic Representative and Computer Science Department head (15 years for the program he initiated), although his basketball scorekeeping duties will not conclude until a few weeks from now, technically meaning his Austin Peay service now has extended past 50 years.