CIAA Commissioner Leon Kerry, 63, retired today, effective immediately. The board of directors cited "personal reasons." (Qcitymetro.com file photo)

Leon G. Kerry, who has led the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) for the past 22 years, retired unexpectedly today. His departure was effective immediately.

The news was announced late Tuesday by the CIAA board of directors, which cited “personal reasons” for Kerry’s retirement.

“The CIAA Board of Directors would like to thank Leon for his years of service to this great conference,” Board President Mickey Burnim said in a statement. “Our league has grown under his leadership and we are well-positioned to expand on that foundation”

Kerry, 63, had worked for the CIAA since 1988 and has been commissioner of the nation’s oldest black college and university conference for the past 22 years.

Associate Commissioner and Senior Woman Administrator Monique Smith has been named interim commissioner.

Unclear is whether Kerry’s retirement will effect Charlotte’s long-term status as host city for the ever-popular CIAA basketball tournament. Earlier this year, conference officials voted to keep the tournament in Charlotte through 2014, and Kerry had once hinted that he would like to see Charlotte named permanent host.

Tournament attendance has been especially strong since the event was moved from Raleigh in 2006. The 2013 tournament will mark the CIAA centennial, and officials are expecting their biggest crowds yet.

Kerry became snared in controversy earlier this year when The Charlotte Observer reported that the CIAA had paid more than $100,000 in bonuses to Charlotte Regional Visitor Authority employee Ereka Crawford-Brim, who helped coordinate the annual tournament. City officials concluded that the payment amounted to improper compensation and led to several changes in how the CRVA does business.

In an April interview with the Observer, Kerry said he didn’t consider the money a bonus but more of a stipend for Crawford-Brim, and he vowed to find ways around any rules that prohibited such payments.

"We will give her something," he was quoted as saying. "I don't know how I'll do it. If I do it directly, I don't have to deal with you."

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