MU gives Hamrick extension
Published 1:14 am Tuesday, April 10, 2012
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick has received a contract extension.
The university announced Monday that Hamrick’s contract was extended through June 2017. Terms of the extension weren’t disclosed.
When he was hired in July 2009, Hamrick was given a three-year contract that paid him $235,000 per year.
MU President Stephen Kopp says Hamrick has brought a high level of academic and fiscal accountability to the athletic department.
Hamrick was responsible for hiring football coach Doc Holliday and men’s basketball coach Tom Herrion. Marshall says membership in the Big Green Scholarship Foundation has nearly doubled, while membership in a group comprised of former Marshall athletes has tripled in three years.
Hamrick also renegotiated a multimedia rights contract with IMG College that has doubled Marshall’s revenue share to $1.4 million per year. It includes upgrades to the football stadium’s scoreboard, video display and sound systems at no cost to the university.
Hamrick also has overseen a $1.6 million renovation to the Henderson Center that includes upgrades to sound and air-handling systems that will debut for the 2012-13 season.
“I’m most proud of the results we’re seeing in the classroom and with the caliber of student-athletes we are recruiting,” Kopp said. “The wins on the field and more fans in the seats are obviously a reflection of the quality of the program he is building here at Marshall. It’s something I know all of the Herd Nation wants to see continue.”
Last year Hamrick launched a $20 million fundraising drive for the construction of an indoor practice facility that includes a track, soccer stadium, student-athlete academic center, sports medicine research center and a Marshall Hall of Fame atrium. Construction on the soccer stadium is expected to begin later this year.
Hamrick was a starting linebacker for the Thundering Herd in 1978 and 1979 and graduated the following year. He earned a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University in 1981.
Before joining Marshall, Hamrick spent six years as the athletic director at UNLV. He also served as the AD at East Carolina and Arkansas-Little Rock.
“I’m very much appreciative of the support that I’ve received from Dr. Kopp and the confidence he has shown in me,” Hamrick said. “His vision for not just athletics, but the entire university, is something all Marshall alumni and supporters should value.
“As an alum, I do. The future is very bright for Herd athletics and I’m looking forward to continuing to be a part of it.”