Longtime A&M athletic department official dies

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - A man who had a more than 40-year career working in the athletic department at Texas A&M University has died. Billy Pickard was 81.

Texas A&M said Pickard died Monday at a Bryan hospital after suffering a stroke.

The university said the 1956 A&M alumnus was hired as head athletic trainer in 1965, then holding various positions over the decades. By 1994 he'd been named an associate athletic director for facilities and was later named senior associate athletic director for facilities. Though his full-time status ended in 2009, he still came to the university most every day.

As an undergraduate, the San Antonio native served as a student football trainer, including under head football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and during the Junction Boys football training camp before the 1954 season.