Colorado State to hire Joe Parker from Texas Tech as AD

Joe Parker, the deputy athletic director at Texas Tech for the past four years, is expected to be named CSU's new athletic director.

Several sources with knowledge about the search confirmed Monday to the Coloradoan that Parker would be hired by Colorado State University. All of the sources spoke on the condition of anonymity.

CSU wouldn't confirm the hire but scheduled a news conference Tuesday to announce and introduce its new athletic director.

Parker did not immediately respond to a voice-mail message on his office phone at Texas Tech, and Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt was not available and did not immediately reply to an email.

John Morris, the deputy AD who has been running CSU's athletic department on an interim basis since Graham's firing, announced Feb. 27 that he was leaving to become the athletic director at Tufts University, an NCAA Division III school in Medford, Massachusetts. Morris, who was a candidate to become CSU's new AD, said he would stay on through the hiring of the new AD to help the school through the transition process.

Parker apparently rose to the top in a nationwide search that began in August, when former AD Jack Graham was fired by Colorado State University President Tony Frank. CSU delayed the search while it went through the final stages of receiving approval to build a new $220 million on-campus stadium. The financing for that project was approved by the school's board of governors in February, and the search resumed.

Frank said the search firm, DHR International, told him early in the process that he would have a better pool of candidates if he waited to make the hire until the spring. CSU is paying $70,000 plus expenses, according to a spokesman.

CSU spokesman Mike Hooker declined to say when asked Friday evening whether or not the search had been narrowed down to a single candidate or group of finalists, saying only that the school was "continuing our work toward announcing CSU's next AD,"

Parker served as a key member of a four-person project team that was responsible for more than $400 million in capital improvements, including the renovation of the historic football stadium at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, from 2003 to 2010. He provided leadership support for a $120 million capital campaign for athletic facility improvements from 2000-03 at Oklahoma, while also designing and implementing a premium seating plan that funded 70 percent of the renovation and expansion of that school's football stadium. Annual giving at Oklahoma during his tenure as director of the Sooner Club increased more than 270 percent to a record $12.5 million in 2003.

Parker has a bachelor's degree in economics from Michigan, where he was a three-time All-American swimmer, and master's degree in business administration from Texas, where he started his career as a development manager in the athletic department. He also has worked at Washington State and, for the past eight years, has essentially run the day-to-day operations of the Texas Tech athletic department.

Parker and his wife, Jennie, have two children, Emma and Will.

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

CSU athletic directors

Jack Graham, 2011-14

Paul Kowalczyk, 2006-11

Mark Driscoll, 2003-06

Jeff Hathaway, 2001-03

Tim Weiser, 1997-2000

Tom Jurich, 1994-97

Corey Johnson, 1990-93

Oval Jaynes, 1986-91

Fum McGraw, 1976-86

Jack O'Leary, 1974-76

Perry Moore, 1968-74

Jim Williams, 1965-68

Bob Davis, 1953-65

Harry Hughes, 1911-53

George Cassidy, 1910-11

Claude Rothgeb, 1906-10

John McIntosh, 1904-05