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[ Originally posted 08.13.03 ]
UNLV
picks Pirates AD
From staff and wire reports
©2003 Bonesville.net
Mike Hamrick will be the new athletic
director at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, making a parallel move from
a Conference USA school to a Mountain West program.
Hamrick, East Carolina's athletic director
for the past eight years, accepted UNLV President Carol Harter's job offer
over the phone late Tuesday. It is a return home for Hamrick, who began his
career in athletic administration 22 years ago at UNLV.
"UNLV was my first job and I told my wife
it would be great to come back to Las Vegas someday," Hamrick told the Las
Vegas Review-Journal late Tuesday from his Greenville, N.C., home. "The
quality of the people in place from the president to the staff to the
coaches is very impressive."
When John Robinson resigned as athletic
director May 20, Harter said she wanted his replacement in place before
UNLV's 2003 football season opener, an Aug. 29 home game against Toledo.
Hamrick was chosen over Montana's Wayne
Hogan and Idaho's Mike Bohn, finalists from about 70 applicants. Hamrick is
expected to be introduced by Harter to the Nevada Board of Regents on Friday
in Reno.
"Mr. Hamrick has a wealth of experience in
college athletics and wonderful credentials in athletics administration,"
Harter said in a statement. "I am confident that he will do an outstanding
job leading UNLV's athletic programs."
At East Carolina, Hamrick helped guide the
Pirates into C-USA and oversaw $46 million in completed or pending capital
improvement projects, including upgrades to the school's football stadium,
basketball arena and a state-of-the-art strength and conditioning facility.
A new baseball stadium is scheduled for construction.
Hamrick's tenure at ECU has also been
marked by muted dissension within the athletic department and more outspoken
discord among key boosters over what some saw as a heavy-handed management
style.
Perhaps Hamrick's biggest crisis at the
school erupted with last year's
'Friday Night Fight'
controversy, in which the ECU A.D. abruptly breached an agreement with the
N.C. High School Athletic Association and scheduled a televised home game in
conflict with the state prep playoffs.
Steve Logan, then the
school's football coach, complained publicly that he was not consulted about
the scheduling change. Subsequently, Logan agreed to step down at the end of
the 2002 season and the school agreed it would continue to honor the
financial terms of his $200,000 per year, multi-year contract.
Hamrick's first job as an athletic director
was at Arkansas-Little Rock. He took over in 1990 and guided the school into
the Sun Belt Conference.
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02/23/2007 10:36:50 AM
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