Former UT-Austin president Powers dies at 72

Bill Powers, the president of the University of Texas at Austin from 2006 to 2015 who was instrumental in the launching of the Longhorn Network with ESPN, has died. He was 72.

The university said Powers died Sunday in Austin from complications from a fall several months earlier and oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, a rare, adult-onset muscle disorder.

"A fixture at football, volleyball and basketball games and other Longhorns events, Powers launched the Longhorn Network in 2011," the school said as part of a statement published online. "He helped the Big 12 thrive as a power conference after a difficult realignment period in the early 2010s. And he was on the national committee that…