Tom Pelissero

USA TODAY Sports

The NFL industry lost a titan and pioneer Thursday night.

Agent Eugene Parker has died after a battle with kidney cancer. He was 60.

Parker represented the likes of Curtis Martin, Deion Sanders, Emmitt Smith and Rod Woodson during their Hall of Fame careers, earning a reputation as a tough, innovative negotiator who wasn’t afraid to have his clients hold out.

More recently, Parker was partner and agent for Relativity Football, representing roughly 30 active clients including Larry Fitzgerald, Jason Pierre-Paul and three of the top seven picks in last year’s NFL Draft.

In 2005, Black Enterprise magazine named Parker one of the 50 most powerful African-Americans in sports.

“Eugene and I were more than business partners, we were brothers," vice president of Relativity Sports and agent Roosevelt Barnes said in a statement. "I I have known him since I was eight years old in Fort Wayne. Eugene was one of the smartest and most innovative people in the sports business. He handled everything with grace and humility. His imprint on the NFL and the men who played the game will be felt for many years to come. He will be profoundly missed,”

A native of Fort Wayne, Ind., Parker had his own stellar athletic career on the basketball court, scoring 1,430 points at Purdue University. He was selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the fifth round of the 1978 NBA Draft and inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001.

According to his bio on his agency’s website, Parker earned his law degree from Valparaiso University in 1982 and represented his first NFL client later that year: Roosevelt Barnes Jr., who went into business with Parker in 1987 and is also a Relativity Football partner.

Parker is survived by wife June and their five children Tai, Eugene Jr., Brandon, Solomon and Austin.