TCU's Hyman Honored as National Athletic Director of the Year
June 8, 2004
FORT WORTH, Texas - TCU Director of Athletics Eric Hyman has been named the 2004 National Athletic Director of the Year by Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal, the magazine has announced. Under the leadership of Hyman, who is completing his seventh year directing TCU athletics, the Horned Frogs have become a nationally prominent program with improved visibility, personnel and facilities and nationally-ranked top 25 teams.
Hyman was selected for the national award after being chosen as the NCAA Division I-A West Region Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). He joins an impressive list of previous honorees which includes: Andy Geiger, Ohio State University (2003); Bob Bowlsby, University of Iowa (2002); Ted Leland, Stanford University (2001); and Lew Perkins, University of Connecticut (2000). Hyman will receive the award on Saturday, June 12, at NACDA's 39th Annual Convention. The awards luncheon at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas, will begin at 11:30 a.m. (CT).
During the 2003-04 school year, TCU continued its recent success in collegiate athletics. The Frogs garnered four conference championships, winning titles in baseball, men's golf, women's swimming and diving and women's indoor track and field, and secured nine second-place league finishes. The conference championships in women's swimming and women's indoor track were the first in school history, while the TCU baseball and volleyball teams set school records for wins. In addition, the TCU football team captivated the nation by reaching a Bowl Championship Series ranking of sixth in 2003, the highest ever for a school from a non-BCS conference. Six TCU teams-men's indoor track and field (8th), men's golf (10th), men's tennis (18th), women's basketball (22nd), football (25th) and men's outdoor track and field (currently at NCAA Championships)-finished or will complete their respective seasons rated among the nation's top 25.
Since Hyman's arrival in Fort Worth, the Horned Frogs have generated 29 conference titles. Since the 1999-00 campaign, TCU owns an impressive 26 league championships, an average of more than five per year. In addition, the Frogs are excelling in the classroom. In the latest report issued, TCU student-athletes have a higher graduation percentage rate (72%) than the overall student graduation rate (64%). Attendance figures have also increased. In 2003, TCU's home football attendance average of 36,155 was the second highest in school history, the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum single-game attendance record was broken by the men's basketball team and the women's basketball program set a TCU record for average home attendance (3,470).
Under the direction of Hyman, the Horned Frogs transitioned to Conference USA during the 2001-02 school year and turned in the most successful overall season of any C-USA member. The Frogs' debut campaign in the league featured one regular season championship, five tournament championships and nine NCAA appearances, more than any other conference school. That season came on the heels of the 2000-01 athletic season, arguably the best in school history, when TCU registered a school-record eight Western Athletic Conference championships and had seven teams nationally ranked. TCU was one of only four schools to record 10 victories in football and 20 wins in both men's and women's basketball, and set a school record for football season tickets sold.
"TCU has achieved success because of a wide cross-section of support within and outside of the university," Hyman said. "From the chairman of the board to the faculty to the coaches, TCU is the most user-friendly school at which I have ever worked. What separates TCU from all other schools is the spirit and the cooperation of its people. Recognition like this is a reflection of a lot of people working together. It's not about one person; this is a group effort."
Since officially being named to the post on Dec. 8, 1997, Hyman has worked diligently to improve TCU's athletics facilities. The first phase of a plan approved by the Board of Trustees in November of 1998 included the construction of the Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium, the Robert and Maria Lowden Track and the Morris Football Practice Fields. Phase two included the ADA-recommended renovations to Daniel-Meyer Coliseum and the construction of the John Justin Athletic Center, which houses an academic learning center, athletics administrative offices, football offices, meeting rooms and a heritage center to showcase the past traditions and accomplishments of Horned Frog athletics. Phase three included the construction of Lupton Stadium for baseball, a football videoboard and a new tennis center. The final phase saw the addition of the Ed and Rae Schollmaier Basketball Complex, along with additional football practice fields.
Hyman was instrumental in orchestrating TCU's invitation to join the Mountain West Conference in the 2005-06 academic year. Achievements during the Hyman era put TCU in position to make the mutually-beneficial move to the Mountain West. Hyman has also successfully procured some of the top coaches to work at TCU. During his tenure, Hyman has hired football coaches Dennis Franchione and Gary Patterson, men's basketball coach Neil Dougherty, women's basketball coach Jeff Mittie, volleyball coach Prentice Lewis, baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle, men's tennis coach Joey Riv? and women's tennis coach Dave Borelli, while overseeing a transformation of the athletics department's personnel.
Prior to joining TCU, Hyman was athletics director at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Previously, he served as an executive associate athletics director at North Carolina State University, athletics director at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and associate athletics director at Furman University. In addition, he coached football at Furman and women's basketball at North Greenville (S.C.) College. A successful student-athlete at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Hyman was an all-conference football player who made the dean's list.
Hyman's wife, Pauline, is also an active academician with an athletics background. She currently teaches the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills course at TCU, a program she previously developed and taught at Miami. They have two children, Ryan, who graduated from TCU in 2001, and Corrine, a 2004 graduate of TCU.
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