LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Roger Blalock, a former basketball player and senior associate athletic director at Purdue, has died.

A spokeswoman at the Hippensteel Funeral Service and Crematory in Lafayette, Ind., confirmed the 65-year-old Blalock's death but would not give details about the cause. Purdue spokesman Tom Schott says Blalock died at his West Lafayette home.

"Roger was a caring, compassionate and competitive Boilermaker," athletic director Morgan Burke said in a statement on the Purdue athletics website. "We will miss his larger-than-life presence and offer our deepest affections to J.B. and the rest of his family."

Blalock was assistant basketball coach at Purdue from 1974 to 1979. He was a two-year basketball letter winner at Purdue who averaged 12.3 points per game during the 1966-67 season. He earned a bachelor's degree in physical education and a communication minor from Purdue in 1969.

Blalock also was active in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and volunteered as head coach for the Lafayette Hustlers, a local AAU team which regularly competed at the national championship tournament.

Sadie Harper-Scott, the local NAACP chapter president, said she was shocked when she heard the news of Blalock's death.

"He was a man with a big heart, an honest person," Harper-Scott told the Lafayette Journal and Courier. "He was very trustworthy and would bring calmness. He was a man of passion with a gentle heart."

Blalock was senior associate athletic director from 2004 until he retired on Jan. 31. He had been associate athletics director (1999-2004), assistant athletics director (1995-99) and compliance coordinator (1994-95).

Funeral arrangements were pending.