Friday, September 14, 2012

BURNABY, B.C. − In a manner of speaking, you could say that Milton Richards is a lot like an 1800s explorer and fur trader, someone with the requisite pioneer spirit to lead his company upstream and into a brave new world.

Last November, after spending more than a quarter-century stateside within the realm of university athletics administration, Richards was named the athletics director at a school that sat on the verge of a most historical distinction.

On Sept. 1, Canada’s Simon Fraser University officially became the NCAA’s first international member school, completing a two-year Division II provisional membership process.

That’s why it seems only fitting that the school, named after an early-1800s British explorer who established trading posts and charted most of what is now Canada’s western-most province of British Columbia, is set to step forward into uncharted territory.

Read more about Simon Fraser's historic adventure at NCAA News.