Tom Jurich

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Tom Jurich (born July 26, 1956) is the Director of Athletics for the University of Louisville. He was hired on October 21, 1997 after holding the same positions at Colorado State University and Northern Arizona University. On March 9, 1999, he signed a contract to stay the Director of Athletics until 2012, an unprecedented offer.^[1] In 2007, Jurich was selected Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal/SportsBusiness Daily national athletic director of the year.^[2][3]

Tom Jurich was born in Alhambra, California and played kicker at Arcadia High School, at Northern Arizona University, and in one game for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League, after being drafted in the 10th round in 1978.^{[4] [5]}

Jurich had spent four years at Colorado State University, starting in early 1994, as athletics director. Previously, he had been the athletics director for Northern Arizona from 1988 to 1994. On October 10, 1997, he announced that he withdrew from consideration for the University of Louisville job, saying his wife had lived her life in nearby Wyoming, and that he liked living in Fort Collins, Colorado.^[6][7]

Prior to Jurich, Bill Olsen was the athletics director of U of L. Olsen decided to retire after the University of Louisville's athletic program faced two NCAA investigations, and a football program that was not meeting expectations. The initial deal from U of L was five years.^[8][9]

One of his first actions was to replace Ron Cooper with John L. Smith as football coach, in an attempt to boost fan support before the move to the new Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.^[10] One of his greatest accomplishments was bringing Rick Pitino, who had brought the rival University of Kentucky's basketball team to one NCAA championship and three Final Fours, to the University of Louisville on March 21, 2001.^[11] Pitino was going to take the basketball coaching job at University of Michigan, but proclaimed cowardice in going to Louisville, being quoted as saying "I can't get on the phone and tell Tom no. I can't tell him this."^[12] Pitino replaced Denny Crum, who had brought two NCAA titles to Louisville in the 1980's, but had a 12-19 record in the 2000-2001 season and was on difficult relations with Jurich.^[13] Between the hiring of Pitino, and the football team going to bowl games four straight years, the Lexingon Herald-Leader dubbed October 21, 1997, as "the most significant day in the recent history of college sports in Kentucky" due to that being the day Jurich was hired.^[14]

He and his wife, Terrilynn, have four children.^[15]

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