WALK THIS WAY - Arizona Daily Wildcat - University of Arizona

By Mike Chesnick
Born to be
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Athletic Director
“McKale Center is a great venue, but it needs to be updated,” says new AD Greg Byrne, who came to UA from Mississippi State.
Q&A: Greg Byrne, who grew up around college ADs,
explains what expansion means for the Pac-10
Conference and how UA facilities rate
For Greg Byrne, one benefi t of being
the son of an athletic director
was getting to meet other athletic
directors and soak up their ideas as
well as his father’s.
As a 12-year-old, Byrne remembers
one of those ADs making a
strong impression: Arizona’s Cedric
Dempsey.
Dempsey was in his early years
of plotting to make the Wildcats
more competitive in the Pac-10
Conference, after luring Lute Olson
from Iowa to resurrect the UA
men’s basketball program.
More than 25 years later, Byrne
is Arizona’s new AD and faces a
similar challenge. Like Dempsey,
Byrne inherits a fi nancially selfsuffi
cient athletic program in need
of more money with a coach (Sean
Miller) trying to rebuild the men’s
basketball team.
Unlike Dempsey, Byrne will have
the added chore of shepherding Arizona
through an expanded conference.
The Pac-10 voted to add Utah
in 2011-12 and Colorado in 2012-13
after a proposed 16-team league
that included Texas fell through.
Will Byrne, 38, seek advice from
Dempsey?
“I’ve known him since I was 12.
He absolutely will be a sounding
board for me and our department
as we move forward,” Byrne says.
“I think it would be irresponsible if
I didn’t take advantage of that.”
At 6-foot-6, the energetic, boyish
Byrne looks as if he could suit
up for Miller’s basketball team.
He comes from Mississippi State,
where he became the nation’s
youngest AD at a Division I-A
school in 2008. He also had extensive
fundraising experience at Oregon,
Oregon State and Kentucky.
His father, Bill, is athletic director
at Texas A&M, after holding
that position at Oregon from 1983-
92 and Nebraska from 1992-2002.
Greg Byrne talked about his
goals for his new job at Arizona:
Q. What are your immediate
priorities?
A. I’m trying to get my arms
around and understand the issues
we face: Where we are going longterm
as a conference. What our
Continued on page 29
Luke Adams photos
Age: 38
Born: Nov. 29, 1971, in
Pocatello, Idaho
Family: Wife, Regina; sons,
Nick (15) and Davis (12)
College: Arizona State
(undergrad), Mississippi
State (grad)
Previous position: Athletic
director, Mississippi State
(2008-10)
Other positions: Fiesta
Bowl offi cial (1993-95),
Oregon regional director
of development (1995-97),
Oregon State associate
AD (1998-2002), Kentucky
associate AD (2002-2005),
Mississippi State associate
AD (2006-08)
UA VISITOR GUIDE FALL/WINTER 2010
GREG BYRNE FILE
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