UNLV has 5 in line for AD

Steve Guiremand

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

UNLV has made no secret that its goal is to join Division I football's heavweights in the lucrative Bowl Championship Series. But when it comes to picking a new athletic director, the school has decided to scour the low and mid-major ranks.

The Sun has learned that all five finalists for the position vacated by John Robinson in May are current athletic directors at non-BCS schools including Toledo's Mike O'Brien, whose Rockets ironically open their football season Aug. 29 against the Rebels at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"Maybe we'll just introduce him at halftime and save the airfare," joked a selection committee source.

The other finalists are Mike Hogan of Montana, Mike Bohn of Idaho, Doug Woolard of Saint Louis and Mike Hamrick of East Carolina, who earlier denied to the Sun that he had applied for the job.

UNLV history professor Andy Fry, who chaired the 16-person search and selection committee, would not confirm the name of all finalists because "at this point we are still in the process of trying schedule interviews with them and it wouldn't be fair to release their names until they actually are confirmed to visit."

However, Fry did confirm that Hogan, 47, was one of the finalists and that the eight-year Montana AD would be town to meet with the committee and go through a two-day interview process starting on Monday.

Hogan has recently named the Division I-AA West Region Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

The former sports information director at Florida State also served as that school's interim athletic director in 1994 and 1995 when then-Seminoles AD Bob Goin was dismissed after it was discovered he had some free work done on the roof of his house by the same construction company that helped to refurbish Doak Campbell Stadium.

"I think we have some pretty good prospects," a selection committee source said. "(UNLV President Carol Harter) wanted to bring someone in that has previous athletic director experience, so that was very key to the process."

San Jose State athletic director Chuck Bell, reported in some media athletes as a strong canididate for the position, pulled his name from the list before the selection committee whittled down its list from a dozen to five on Wednesday at the Tam Center according to another source familiar with the process.

Of the five finalists, Hamrick, who has played a key role in helping turn East Carolina into a Conference-USA heavyweight, may have the best credentials.

The 1980 Marshall graduate began his administrative career at UNLV in 1981-82 in the promotions department and worked his way up the ladder to where he earned the athletic directors position at Arkansas-Little Rock where he helped move the Trojans into the Sun Belt Conference while also adding two sports.

He went to East Carolina in 1995 where he has overseen over $40 million in construction projects for athletic facilities and currently serves as the ochair f Conference-USA athletic directors board.

Bohn, 42, has been at Idaho since 1998 where he has helped upgrade the school's athletic facilities, including helping raise funds for the school's $13 million Vandal Athletic Center. He also helped engineer the move of the football program into the Sun Belt Conference.

Woolard, 52, has been athletic director at Saint Louis since 1994 and reportedly got a big endorsement from search committee member Charlie Spoonhour, who reviously coached at that school before coming to UNLV. Before that Woolard as an associate athletic director at Washington State.