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Friday, May 15, 2009

Kansas State names AD

By J-W Staff Reports

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Manhattan — John Currie will be Kansas State’s next athletic director, inheriting a department whose major sports programs have fallen behind those of archrival Kansas.

Currie, 38, will be introduced on Monday, the school announced Thursday. It’s the first major decision by incoming president Kirk Schulz, who officially succeeds the retiring Jon Wefald on June 15.

“We wanted to fill this position with the best candidate possible, and with John we feel we have accomplished that,” Schulz said in a statement. “He brings energy, integrity and experience to his new role at Kansas State.”

Currie replaces Bob Krause, who stepped down earlier this year. A nine-person search committee headed by Amy Button Renz, head of the alumni asociation, narrowed the list to three last weekend.

Currie earned a history degree from Wake Forest in 1993. He has spent the past 10 years at Tennessee, serving in various capacities. Most recently, he was executive associate athletic director.

Working under Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton, Currie was in charge of a variety of departments, including men’s basketball, fundraising, ticketing, public relations and broadcasting.

Currie also was instrumental in hiring Bruce Pearl as men’s basketball coach. Pearl won Southeastern Conference coach of the year honors in 2008 after leading the Volunteers to their first outright conference championship in 41 years.

At Kansas State, Currie will inherit a financially challenged program that has been struggling to keep pace with the more affluent members of the Big 12 such as Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska and Kansas.

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Comments

jayhawkinatl (anonymous) says...

Who are they kiddin'??? Coach Snyder calls the shots over there now. No way he listens to a 38-year old "kid".

May 15, 2009 at 8:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jayhawkerjoel (anonymous) says...

K-State an archrival of Kansas? Only when looking at it from the west.

His first real order of business will be to find a good replacement for Snyder. Ole Bill only came back out of necessity. I'll bet they work closely together to find his replacement. Isn't Terry Allen near by?

May 15, 2009 at 1:19 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Eurekahwk (anonymous) says...

You know who they could get for the K-State football powerhouse? Stan Parrish

He was the guru of Ball State's high flying offense this last season. I thnk he might be up for the challenge the second time around!

May 15, 2009 at 4:12 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

whitechocolate (anonymous) says...

Snyder is a temporary finger-in-the-dyke fix. My guess is he will try to get the program to stop hemorrhaging and get it to look presentable in 3-4 years so KSU can hire Patterson from TCU.

May 15, 2009 at 4:36 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

whitechocolate (anonymous) says...

And that's funny, Eureka. But something tells me the KSU alum would not be happy re-hiring the last KSU coach to go winless in season.

May 15, 2009 at 4:38 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

njjayhawk (anonymous) says...

Who were the two finalists in addition to Currie for AD at KSU? Yogi Bear and Bernie Madoff?

So Currie has Tennessee experience? So what? Tennessee is hillbilly land. Oh, yea, "hillbilly" fits K-State, all right. And I take it Currie had much to do with bringing in Kiffen as the head Tenn football coach if Currie had much to do with bringing in Bruce Pearl. But since when has the hiring of Bruce Pearl equated to brilliance? Get real.

Jayhawkinatl is right: Synder calls the shots in Manhattan and isn't going to take any orders from Currie or Schulz. Let's hope for the sake of Aggieville Schulz and Currie don't turn out to be Harpo and Groucho in wildcat land.

May 15, 2009 at 11:16 p.m. ( | suggest removal )