Albrecht again fills interim role for athletic department

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 | 10:12 a.m.

UNLV President Dr. Carol C. Harter doesn't plan on wasting any time in hiring a new athletic director to replace John Robinson.

Although such searches routinely take anywhere from three to six months, Harter said she'd like to have a new athletic director on board in as little as two months.

School bylaws require Harter to put together a selection screening committee that includes members of the athletic department, student government and alumni.

"It's somewhere between 10, 12, 14 people," Harter said. "I don't remember the exact number right off the top of my head. This has all happened so quickly. But it's established by university bylaws.

"I will appoint a chair in the next few weeks. I hope we'll be able to go a pretty quick search and have somebody on board in the next few months if that is logistically possible."

The screening committee makes its recommendations to Harter.

Who makes the final choice?

"I do," Harter said.

So you have the final say?

"Yep."

Harter announced that Fred Albrecht, UNLV vice president for university and community relations, will serve as interim athletic director.

It's the second time that Albrecht, a former Rebels men's tennis coach, men's basketball assistant and director of athletics fundraising, has served the role as interim AD at UNLV. He also was interim AD for part of 1995 when Charles Cavagnaro was eventually picked to replace current Virginia Tech AD Jim Weaver.

Albrecht made it clear that he does not want the job permanently and that he took on the duty to help Harter and the school.

"I'm definitely not interested in pursuing it," Albrecht said.

The fact that Albrecht is even around to wear the interim tag is an amazing story in itself.

Two years ago he lost 70 pounds while battling cancer in his head, neck and shoulder regions.

"I was at Stage 4 plus," Albrecht said. "Stage 4 is the highest, so I was at a very serious condition obviously. I'm fortunate to be alive and I know that."

Because of the amount of chemotherapy and radiation treatment he received, Albrecht lost most of the taste buds in his mouth.

"I know exactly what they are going through," Albrecht said of Robinson and his wife Linda, who is battling breast cancer. "It's a strain on the entire family. So my heart goes out to them."

Among the top candidates to replace Robinson are expected to be senior associate athletic director Jerry Koloskie, who has been Robinson's right-hand man the last 17 months and has been a member of the athletic department for over 19 years, popular Las Vegas 51s President Don Logan and Orange Bowl CEO Keith Tribble, who was recently named the 23rd most influential minority in the world of sports by Sports Illustrated magazine.

Tribble, one of the people responsible for helping form the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in college football, was recently a finalist for the AD job at Pitt. He was an associate athletic director at UNLV in 1989-90 and reportedly has set his sights on becoming a Division I college athletic director one day.

"If the UNLV administration were to contact him, I'm sure he'd listen," said a source close to Tribble. "I think he was intrigued when he heard that the job had opened."