UALR athletic director signs on with a catch

PETE PERKINS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Chris Peterson was named UALR's athletic director Friday.
He will not start the job until Nov. 1 because of unfinished business at Creighton, where he has served as associate athletic director.
Peterson, 48, replaces Rick Mello, who resigned June 16 to become athletic director at Florida International. Peterson becomes UALR's fifth athletic director since the men's basketball program moved to NCAA Division I in 1978.
"Anytime you look for someone new, whether it's in academics or athletics, you really hope you can do better than you did the last time," UALR Chancellor Charles Hathaway said. "Rick [Mello] did some very important things for us last time. This guy's as classy as they come. He's very, very sound, and I think we're very fortunate to be able to attract him."
Peterson's primary role at Creighton in Omaha, Neb., was fund-raising.
"He could get people to get deeper in their pockets than they wanted to, and yet they'd still like it," Creighton Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen said. "He's the best I've ever been around in raising money."
Peterson said he felt obliged to finish his work at Creighton before leaving the school.
"Right now, for the next six weeks, is our busiest time at Creighton," Peterson said. "We have to sign all of our contracts. If I was to leave Creighton, there are just way to many things that would fall between the cracks. They've been too good to me, so I'm not going to do that."
Hathaway said he hopes Peterson will bring "stability" to UALR's athletic program.
"We need to put people in the stands at basketball games, which is really the only revenue sport we have," Hathaway said. "I just want him to come into this program and take us one notch higher."
"I just want to get out in the community, get to know people, get comfortable, and find out what we need to do," Peterson said. "Anybody who comes into a place and says they already have a plan is nuts. I have to find out from the community what we have to get done to make things work. What do we have to do to fill Alltel Arena? I know we have good people here, and I know we have good coaches."
Before his three years at Creighton, Peterson worked as an athletic administrator at Nebraska, Kansas State and Pacific.
"The community has to get into it," Peterson said of supporting a program. "You can go back to our Kansas State story. We did our song and dance there for two years, telling people, 'You have to come. You need to come and support these kids. You support them and they'll play better. They'll start winning.' And they did. I got there in 1989, and they won one game. In 1994, I left for Nebraska, and [Kansas State's football team] went 7-4 and went to a bowl game.
"We need to get people to support the program. We need to get out in the community, and get people to feel good about UALR. That's our job."
Associate athletic director Gary Hogan, rumored to be a candidate early in the search, said he never applied for the job.
"I love what I do," Hogan said. "I like to be out of the office. I don't like long meetings.
"And I think this guy is going to be great. You like him the first time you see him. He's been at some big-time programs, and he's also been at programs a lot like this one. Rick did a lot of good things building this program internally, getting us going in the right direction. Chris is going to build on that."
Hathaway said Peterson was the only candidate brought to campus.
"Once we had him here, we knew there was no reason to bring anyone else on campus," Hathaway said. "From that point, we were selling."
"I'm really excited about working with Chris," UALR men's basketball coach Porter Moser said. "You meet him, and you instantly feel good. You feel his energy. He thinks we can have something very special here at UALR. I think so, too. We've said that to each other every time we've spoken."
Peterson's contract has not been finalized, but UALR vice chancellor Bill Walker said he expected its completion in "a couple of days."
"This was an easy move for me because it felt good," Peterson said. "I feel like I can bring some things to the table at UALR."

This article was published on Saturday, August 26, 2000

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