One needed look no further than Mike Hamrick's office window for signs of East Carolina University's athletic progress during his seven-year tenure as Director of Athletics.

There, dominating the foreground, was ECU's sparkling new $13 million strength and conditioning center, one of the best of its kind in the nation. Its completion this past spring provides the Pirates with a 52,000-square-foot multipurpose facility, 22,000 of which is dedicated to state-of-the-art weight equipment and conditioning and agility training.

Hamrick served as assistant to the athletic director for KU from 1982 to '84.

Beyond that, the towering north side of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium was visible, along with its spacious upper deck and lavish club level, two projects completed in 1998 and 1999, respectively.

A careful look at Bagwell Field at Dowdy-Ficklen reveals a red, white, and blue Conference USA logo, symbolizing ECU's admission to the nationally prominent league in 1996 for football and 1999 for other sports, another move orchestrated by Hamrick. Hamrick also served as chair of the C-USA Athletics Directors.

These and other accomplishments were sure-fire signs of the progress that ECU Athletics made under Hamrick's direction.

Pirate sports were more visible than ever with ECU's exclusive contract with NBC affiliate WITN-TV, which guaranteeds exposure for ECU football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, and other sports. Initiated by Hamrick, the long-term agreement includes provisions for ECU's coaches shows.

Major strides were made in football scheduling under Hamrick, who has structured home-and-home deals with in-state foes North Carolina and NC State to ensure the wildly popular rivalries continue into the coming decade.

He also secured an exclusive pouring rights agreement with Pepsi which will generate $4 million for ECU Athletics.

Hamrick, enjoyed the third-longest tenure of any Athletics Director at ECU, also made it clear that he was committed to the development of the student-athlete. One-half of all Pirate student-athletes consistently posted grade point averages of 3.0 or better during his tenure and ECU was one of only 22 institutions to be recognized for both their degree completion and community outreach programs by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports.

The stadium expansion and building of the strength and conditioning center represented only part of $40 million in construction projects for athletic facilities which have been completed or will be soon. Other projects included a top-flight lighting system which was added to baseball's Harrington Field in 1999; a new, state-of-the-art scoreboard and video center in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium; and renovations of ECU's tennis facility and track. In addition, fundraising is well underway for a new, first-class baseball stadium. Slated to open in the near future, the 3,000-seat facility has been designed with the goal of allowing East Carolina's nationally ranked baseball team to host NCAA Regional and Super Regional events.

Since Hamrick became director of athletics, contributions to the ECU Educational Foundation (Pirate Club) also rose and season ticket sales are at an all-time high. There have been significant increases in both areas, and ECU's athletics budget has practically doubled since his arrival.

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Prior to coming to ECU in April 1995, Hamrick was the AD at Arkansas-Little Rock, where he engineered the Trojans' move into the Sun Belt Conference. Also, UALR added two sports--men's and women's golf--and funds for women's scholarships increased by more than 200 percent. On the academic side, the cumulative GPA of UALR student-athletes rose dramatically to 2.94.

Before going to Arkansas-Little Rock, Hamrick served as Assistant Athletics Director at Illinois State University from 1984-90.

At ISU, Hamrick initiated and coordinated departmental external activities. He also served as Director of the Redbird Educational and Scholarship Fund.

Hamrick worked as Assistant to the Director of Athletics at the University of Kansas from 1982-84.

He began his professional career at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, where he served in the athletic promotions area from 1981-82.

A 1980 graduate of Marshall University, Hamrick played football for the Thundering Herd and was a two-year starter (1978-79) at linebacker. In 1981, he received a master's degree in the prestigious Sports Administration program from Ohio University, where he was also an assistant football coach.

Hamrick and his wife, Soletta, are the parents of three children--twin sons, Brett and Justin (both 14), and daughter Mollie Ann (11).

—Courtesy of East Carolina Sports Information.