UNLV may pay $200K to secure a new AD

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 9:35 a.m.

Why would someone earning $180,000 a year as athletic director at East Carolina like Mike Hamrick be interested in becoming the new athletic director at UNLV?

Besides the fact rumors have him on the hot seat back in Greenville, N.C., Hamrick might actually get a raise.

That's right. A raise.

Although former Rebels AD John Robinson made just $75,000 last year and Charles Cavagnaro less than $150,000 before that, UNLV president Dr. Carol Harter reportedly may be willing to open the checkbook to pay her next athletic director in the $200,000 range.

Max Urick, one of the headhunters from the Overland Park, Ka., law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King that Harter paid $30,000 to identify and screen potential AD candidates, speculated the school will be willing to around $200,000 (without bonuses) according to an article in the Raleigh News & Observer.

"The school is kind of teed up and ready for the right person," the News & Observer quoted Urick as saying.

When contacted by the Sun on Thursday however, Urick denied he brought up the $200,000 salary figure.

"I'm not part of that discussion," he said, adding, "No one said anything to me. ... The market place will determine what (UNLV) pays."

Harter, attending an NCAA Board of Directors meeting in Kansas City, was not available to either confirm or deny the salary figure according to UNLV spokesman Tom Flagg.

The article also quoted Urick, once an assistant to former East Carolina football coach Mike McGee at Duke, as saying, "I'm a fan of Mike Hamrick. That program has excelled beyond its resources. ... He's one of the top young athletic directors in the country."

Urick told the Sun he believes any of the three finalists for the position --- Hamrick, Montana's Wayne Hogan and Idaho's Mike Bohn --- would do a good job at UNLV.

"I'm high on all three of them," Urick said. "They're three of the top young athletic directors in the business. I think any of them would do a good job there."

Bohn, the last of the three candidates to visit UNLV, will begin his two-day interview on Monday.