Manhattan College athletic director Robert Byrnes was arrested early Thursday morning on charges of driving while intoxicated, after being honored at an awards dinner at the campus’ Draddy Gymnasium, The Post has learned.
Byrnes, 68, who is retiring next month after 26 years as the school’s athletic director, was pulled over after driving erratically and drifting between lanes on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Westchester County, and was stopped near Farragut Avenue at 2:14 a.m., according to a police report obtained by lohud.com.
A resident of Croton-on-Hudson and a father of five, Byrnes, who was driving a blue Ford Explorer, was also charged with making an unsafe lane change. He was said to have “had an odor of alcohol on his breath and was asked to step out of the car,” according to the report.
On Wednesday night, Byrnes attended the 74th Annual Block M Dinner, honoring the school’s top student-athletes. There, Byrnes was given the Junius Kellogg Award, presented annually to “a leader in the Manhattan community who stands for integrity and serves as the ideal role model to student-athletes.”
Following the dinner, Byrnes tagged along with several staff members of the athletic department who were going to the nearby Bronx Ale House, according to a source familiar with the situation. The soon-retiring athletic director was “visibly inebriated, but wasn’t falling over,” according to another source who was at the bar with Byrnes.
Manhattan released the following statement on Monday: “Manhattan College is committed to promoting responsible behavior among the student body and staff. We expect that the members of our community appreciate the importance of conducting themselves appropriately when out socializing. We do not however, comment on the private acts of staff that occur away from campus.”
Byrnes was released without bail and is scheduled to return to Hastings Village Court on May 21.
Byrnes graduated from The Bronx school in 1968 and began his tenure as athletic director in 1988, overseeing 78 MAAC Championships and eight NCAA Tournament appearances for the men’s and women’s basketball teams, including the men’s run this March, which broke a 10-year drought.