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UALR to name Peterson athletic directorPETE PERKINSARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE UALR will name a Creighton associate athletic director as its athletic director on Friday, a source within the UALR athletic department said Wednesday. Chris Peterson, 48, who interviewed on the UALR campus Aug. 8, will replace Rick Mello. Mello resigned June 16 to become athletic director at Florida International. The source said Peterson will be introduced at a news conference on the UALR campus at 5 p.m. Friday. Peterson could not be reached for comment, but Creighton Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen said "UALR is getting someone who is very special in athletic administration." After playing football at Kansas State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Peterson was an assistant football coach at Huron College in Huron, S.D., Western Illinois and Eastern Illinois. Peterson oversaw fund-raising, sales and marketing at Creighton in Omaha, Neb., since 1997. He began his career as an athletic administrator at Huron College in 1978. He has also worked at Pacific, Kansas State and Nebraska. "With [Peterson], you get a combination that's rare," Rasmussen said. "Usually, in this business, athletic administrators are people like me -- people who where almost exclusively coaches or else their background is strictly business. You rarely get a combination, someone who knows coaching and business. Combine those, and his family background, and I think you have one of the true national stars in athletic administration." Peterson's father, Gus Peterson, was an athletic director at Western Illinois, among other schools. UALR vice chancellor Bill Walker said he would "neither confirm nor deny" that Peterson would be the next athletic director at UALR. Walker said he had "face-to-face interviews with at least a dozen candidates." "It was a thorough process," Walker said. "There's no question we got the right man." "Chris works very well with coaches," Rasmussen said. "He says to them, 'What do you need? What can I do?' He's a very good people person. He can go out and get boosters to give more money than they wanted to give, and yet they still feel real good about it. UALR will bring in more money than they've brought in in the past, I guarantee it. "It's a terrific blow for us to lose him. But we understand. He's just too good."
This article was published on Thursday, August 24, 2000RETURN to main pageCopyright and permissions Copyright © 2000, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. |
