Everett "Eppy" Barnes, one of Colgate University's most outstanding baseball and basketball players, left a career in business and banking to return to his alma mater in 1939 as baseball coach and Assistant Athletic Director. A 1922 graduate of Colgate, Barnes was appointed Director of Physical Education and Athletics at Colgate University in 1955, becoming the third Athletic Director in the college's history.
Barnes, who played with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the late twenties, was the first Director of Athletics to serve as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (1965-67).
Barnes, who was one of the founders of the ABCA, also served as its first president in 1945, retaining the position the following year in 1946. Barnes was also a past president of the United States Baseball Federation and the Eastern Intercollegiate Football Association. He was a founder and first president of the Eastern College Athletic Conference, the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (ICAAAA) and the Ice Hockey Association of America.
Barnes served as chairman of the NCAA Olympic Baseball Committee and was a leader in attempts to improve relations with professional baseball. He also was Director of the United States Olympic Committee and chairman of the Transportation Committee for the 1968 Games.
For his contributions to the game of baseball locally, nationally and internationally, Barnes was awarded the prestigious ABCA/Wilson Lefty Gomez Award in 1967.
Barnes is a member of the United Savings-Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame.
