A native of Kenton in Obion County, Earl Ramer joined the University of Tennessee faculty in 1944 as an associate professor of education. In 1958, Dr. Ramer became a faculty representative on the UT Athletics Board and three years later he became chairman of that board where he served many years. Dr. Ramer was appointed UT faculty representative to the NCAA and served as vice president from 1963 until 1968.
In 1971 and ’72, Ramer became the first and only Tennessean to serve as President of the NCAA. He was also a member of the SEC Executive Committee during the years 1962 through 1965 and was Faculty Representative for Intercollegiate Athletics to the SEC (where he served as Chairman of the SEC Committee to Revise its Constitution and By-Laws).
In its early years, Ramer served as Interim Chairman of the College Football Association. During his NCAA presidency, Ramer invited and hosted at his Knoxville home a visit by John Kelly of Philadelphia (Princess Grace’s brother), who was then national AAU president, to negotiate a settlement of conflicts between the NCAA and the American Athletics Union. It was during his second term as NCAA president that drug-testing for college athletes was proposed for regional and national championships.
Dr. Ramer was a professor at UTK for 34 years and was Head of its Department of Continuing and Higher Education for many years. The year of his retirement, at the UT-UCLA football game in Neyland Stadium, the UT Marching Band spelled out “RAMER” on the field at half-time as he was honored by various officials and dignitaries.
Upon his retirement, former Knoxville News-Sentinel Sports Editor, Tom Siler, wrote “Earl Ramer wore many hats, but nothing was more important than trying to help UT coaches keep abreast of the rules, the tangle of barbwire that is the NCAA.”
In his time, Ramer advised and counseled five head coaches in football alone – Bowden Wyatt, Jim McDonald, Doug Dickey, Bill Battle and John Majors. Concluding a long and distinguished career of leadership in public service to education and intercollegiate athletics, Dr. Ramer died in 1998 at his home in Nashville.