John E. Cribbet

John Edward Cribbet (February 21, 1918 – May 23, 2009) was a well-known legal scholar, dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, and chancellor of the University of Illinois.

Biography Cribbet was born in Findlay, Illinois, just outside Decatur. He spent a few months in law practice in Bloomington, Illinois, at the law firm of Costigan, Wollrab, and Yoder before he was invited back to the University of Illinois to teach law.

Cribbet was survived by his wife Betty; his two daughters, Pamela Steward and Carol Cribbet-Bell; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. The Illinois athletic director, Neale Stoner, made the recommendation to terminate Moeller, a recommendation which was later approved by the university's board of trustees in an 8-1 vote.

David Wilson Eligibility Case During his chancellorship, Cribbet reluctantly oversaw another athletics dispute that would threaten Illinois' membership in the Big Ten Conference. The dispute involved the eligibility of quarterback David Wilson. The Big Ten had charged Illinois with misrepresentation, deception, lack of cooperation, and failing to comply with conference rules. It sanctioned the Illinois athletics program with a ban in postseason competition in all sports and the loss of conference revenues. Illinois football coach Mike White and Athletic Director Neale Stoner reportedly threatened to resign if the university did not defend itself against the charges. The university vigorously responded with a 34-page rebuttal denying any wrongdoing. Chancellor Cribbet attributed some of the problems to the university's large bureaucracy; operational staff made innocent, unintentional errors in petitions and materials that were not known to university officials. He would lament: "I had high hopes of being able to make some contribution to the solution to the many troubling problems [in intercollegiate athletics] surfacing in the mass media. Now I fear I shall be known, in athletic circles, only as the chancellor who was involved in the Wilson case, a fact which truly saddens me."

Selected works Property: Cases and Materials (with Corwin W. Johnson, Roger W. Findley, Ernest E. Smith, and John S. Dzienkowski) a seminal textbook now in its ninth edition. Principles of the Law of Property (with Corwin W. Johnson) a popular textbook that spawned three editions. Concepts in Transition: The Search for a New Definition of Property, 1986 University of Illinois Law Review 1. Changing Concepts in the Law of Land Use, 50 Iowa Law Review 245 (1964). Condominium: Home Ownership for Megalopolis?, 61 Michigan Law Review 1207 (1963). Conveyancing Reform, 35 N.Y.U. Law Review 1291 (1960).