ATLANTA (AP) — The Southeastern Conference paid tribute to former Commissioner Roy Kramer, who died on Thursday at 96, before Saturday's SEC Championship Game between No. 3 Georgia and No. 10 Alabama.
Kramer, a Vanderbilt athletic director before his time guiding the SEC from 1990-2002, reshaped college football by dreaming up the precursor to today’s playoff system — the Bowl Championship Series. He also championed the SEC title game.
There was a moment of silence for Kramer, who was referred to as the “father of the bowl championship series,” before the game.
Vanderbilt athletic director Candice Storey Lee said Kramer’s leadership role in college athletics was unique.
“There are very few people who played as large a role in the growth of college athletics as Roy Kramer,” Lee said. “At Vanderbilt, he had the determination to dramatically improve facilities and support services for student-athletes and to support new women’s sports programs in the late 1970s and early 80s. As SEC commissioner, his vision for expanding the conference, creating the SEC championship game, and negotiating national television contracts set the pace across the NCAA.”
Lee said Kramer “was a highly influential administrator, but always a coach at heart. He loved student-athletes and the games themselves. As much as things changed in the business of sports, the people and the games were what mattered most to him.”
Former longtime Atlanta Journal-Constitution college football reporter Tony Barnhart told The Associated Press Kramer was “a true visionary” who played a crucial role in today's success of college football.
“That does not happen without the leadership of Roy Kramer," Barnhart said. "Championship Saturday did not exist until Roy Kramer created the SEC championship game. There was no championship playoff until he created the BCS in 1998. In a sport slow to change he moved college football forward through the sheer force of his will.”
AP Sports Writer Teresa Walker contributed to this report.
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FILE - Roy Kramer, former commissioner , Southeastern Conference, listens to Mack Brown, Head Football Coach for The University of Texas, during his opening statement for the panel discussion for "Ethical Issues in College Athletics" in the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on the Texas Christian University Campus, Thursday, Feb., 12, 2004. (AP Photo/David Pellerin, File)
FILE - Southeastern Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer is pictured at the SEC headquarters in Birmingham, Ala., Tuesday, June 6, 2000. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
ROME (AP) — Olympic swimming champion Gregorio Paltrinieri and fellow Summer athletes started the torch relay for the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Saturday — marking exactly two months before the Feb. 6 opening ceremony.
Paltrinieri carried the sleek torch around the track of the statue-lined Stadio dei Marmi at the Foro Italico to begin a trek covering 12,000 kilometers (nearly 7,500 miles) that will wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony.
“It’s a pleasure to be part of the Olympic movement even if it’s Winter Olympics,” Paltrinieri said.
In all, there will be 10,001 torch bearers.
At the end of the opening day, police said they stopped two groups of pro-Palestinian activists from coming into contact with the relay route.
Giancarlo Peris, the final torch bearer from the 1960 Olympics in Rome, carried the Olympic flame in a lantern to get the proceedings going. The 84-year-old Peris was 18 when he lit the cauldron at the Stadio Olimpico — which is next to the Stadio dei Marmi — more than 65 years ago.
“I didn't think I would be here today,” Peris said with a chuckle.
Paltrinieri won gold in the 1,500 meters at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and has five Olympic medals in all. He and girlfriend Rossella Fiamingo, a fencer, carried Italy's flag at the closing ceremony for last year's Paris Games.
“I used to ski when I was a kid but then I stopped because it’s a little bit dangerous for me,” Paltrinieri said. “Skiing is my favorite (Winter Olympic sport). ... Alberto Tomba was one of my biggest idols.”
Paltrinieri handed off to retired fencer Elisa Di Francisca, who won two golds at the 2012 London Games.
Next was Gianmarco Tamberi, the 2020 Olympic high jump champion.
Also due to carry the torch around Rome on Saturday were tennis player Matteo Berrettini, retired NBA player Andrea Bargnani and former motorcycle racer Max Biaggi.
The torch relay, which includes 60 city celebrations, will be in Naples for Christmas and in Bari for New Year’s Eve. It will reach 2006 Olympics host Turin on Jan 11.
The torch will arrive in Verona on Jan. 18 and pass through Cortina d’Ampezzo on Jan. 26 — on the 70th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 1956 Winter Olympics held at the resort in the Dolomites.
There will also be a cauldron lit in Cortina on the night of the opening ceremony.
Local organizing committee president Giovanni Malagò noted the torch relay will pass by all of the country's UNESCO World Heritage sites, of which Italy has more than any other country with 61.
“It's like a giant two-month advertisement,” Malagò said.
These Games will be held across a large swath of northern Italy and the ceremony will be observed in four different locations, including Livigno (where snowboarding and freestyle skiing will be contested) and Predazzo (ski jumping).
Skating sports will be in Milan; men’s Alpine skiing and ski mountaineering in Bormio; and women’s Alpine skiing, sliding sports and curling in Cortina.
The next stops on the torch relay are Viterbo on Sunday and Terni on Monday.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Former Italian track athlete Giancarlo Peris, 84, left, who was the final bearer of the Olympic torch for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, holds a lantern with the Olympic flame ahead of the start of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch ceremony in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. The journey will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian former foil fencer and Olympic and world champion Elisa Di Francisca carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri lights the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian high jumper and Olympic gold medalist Gianmarco Tamberi, left, receives the flame of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch from Italian former foil fencer and Olympic and world champion Elisa Di Francisca in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian high jumper and Olympic gold medalist Gianmarco Tamberi carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri, left, passes the flame of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch to Italian former foil fencer and Olympic and world champion Elisa Di Francisca in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri lights the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
