UT hires John Currie to be its next AD
KNOXVILLE — The months-long mystery of who would be the University of Tennessee’s next athletic director ended with a sprint to the finish line. John Currie first emerged as a strong candidate for the position Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, the Kansas State athletic director, who earned his master’s degree at Tennessee and spent a decade there in various roles within athletics, officially was announced as the new overseer of the Volunteers.
Currie will be introduced in Knoxville on Thursday and assume his post officially at the start of April.
“It is a very exciting time for my family and me as we return to a place that remains very special to us,” Currie said in a release. “We spent 10 years in Knoxville prior to taking the job at K-State, and I appreciate Chancellor (Beverly) Davenport and the University of Tennessee for providing us this special opportunity.
“As a graduate of the University of Tennessee, I know how much UT athletics means to the people in the state, and I look forward to serving all of the Big Orange Nation, its wonderful coaches, staff and student-athletes, for many years to come. We are excited to return to Rocky Top.”
Currie’s hire comes more than six months after Dave Hart announced his retirement effective June 30, 2017.
Tennessee’s search truly was only a few weeks old, however, because it didn’t really begin until mid-February, when Davenport officially took over as the new chancellor and Tennessee formed a search committee and hired the Turnkey Search firm to aid in the process.
Hart had been in charge of Tennessee athletics since September 2011 when he replaced Mike Hamilton, whose right-hand man was Currie. Currie became a polarizing hire that checked two key boxes as someone with ties to Tennessee and experience as a power-conference athletics director, which was important to Davenport.
While many national pundits praised Tennessee for hiring Currie, fans mostly reacted with disappointment after clamoring for months for UT-Chattanooga’s David Blackburn, who spent two decades at Tennessee before UTC hired him in 2013, and more recently for former Vols football coach Phillip Fulmer, who pursued the job nearly eight years after his firing.
The 45-year-old Wake Forest graduate came to Tennessee in 1997 as the executive director of the Volunteer Athletic Scholarship Fund and, following a twoyear stint as an assistant AD at his alma mater, worked in roles covering external operations, development, marketing and ticket operations from 2000 until 2009, when he was hired by Kansas State.
While heavily involved in fundraising, marketing and ticketing, Currie secured a $50 million commitment to athletic and academic needs in 2006, and from 2003 to 2008 donations to UT athletics grew from $19.5 million to $41.6 million.
Currie was involved in renovation plans for both Neyland Stadium and Thompson-Boling Arena, the construction of the Pratt Pavilion basketball practice facility and the implementation of a new football season-ticket sales plan for students in 2008.
In almost eight years at Kansas State, Currie oversaw a financial turnaround as the department operated with a budget surplus in each of the past seven years and increased its budget from $44 million to $73 million. Kansas State spent $210 million in facility upgrades, including $100 million-plus in football stadium renovations and a basketball practice facility.
The Wildcats enjoyed a banner year in 2012-13, when they won or shared Big 12 Conference titles in football, men’s basketball and baseball to become the first power-conference school to complete the feat since 1998, and Currie was honored as one of four Under Armour athletic directors of the year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
“We are extremely pleased to announce John as our new vice chancellor and director of athletics,” Davenport said in a release. “This is truly an exciting day for the University of Tennessee and our athletics department. As I said when we began this process, we were looking for the best candidate, and we feel strongly that we have him in John Currie.
“John exemplifies all the qualities we were seeking in an athletics director. He is a man of high integrity, strong values, a progressive thinker, he fully understands the importance of being compliant in everything we do, and he is a leader who will put the well-being of our student-athletes above everything.”
Currie’s detractors will point to his ties to Hamilton, whose tumultuous tenure included the firing of Fulmer, the ill-fated football hirings of Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley and the NCAA investigation that ultimately cost the popular Bruce Pearl his job as Tennessee’s men’s basketball coach.
At Kansas State, Currie clashed with basketball coach Frank Martin, who guided the Wildcats to four NCAA tournament appearances in five years and an Elite Eight run in 2010 before bolting for South Carolina. Bruce Weber, Martin’s replacement in 2012, is 49-47 with zero NCAA appearances the past three seasons and again is coaching for his job.
With coaching legend Bill Snyder back in charge, Kansas State’s football program is 66-37 the past eight seasons with seven straight bowl appearances.
“I want to thank John for his tremendous leadership and efforts on behalf of our student-athletes and university,” Kansas State president Richard Myers said in a release. “It has been impressive to see the growth of our athletics department.”