The head coaching position wasn’t the only vacancy needed to be filled by Louisville basketball. Finding a new athletic director was important to fill.
Thus far, the program impacted the most by the FBI investigation has been the Louisville Cardinals. Due to the accusations of school officials giving money to a current player, a house cleaning was in order.
Former athletic director Tom Jurich was given the opportunity to fire head coach Rick Pitino when the news broke. After declining to fire Pitino, Jurich was fired as the AD and the firing of Pitino quickly followed. While the coach was the big name in all of this, Jurich has played a big role into where Louisville is today.
Since being named the athletic director 20 years ago, Jurich set up the program for great success. He made the hiring of Rick Pitino, which had many positives come out of it on the court. He also made some great decisions in football, hiring both Bobby Petrino and Charlie Strong.
In 2011, Jurich helped Louisville through realignment, bringing the Cardinals to the ACC and guaranteeing the program long-term stability.
While his accomplishments were great for the program, it started to seem like winning became a bigger priority than ethics. The re-hire of Petrino in football after his firing from Arkansas due to an affair was meant with mixed reactions at best.
Then, the basketball scandal just a couple of years ago involving strippers and prostitution left many questioning Jurich’s handling of the program. With all eyes looking on him, this latest batch of news was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
His replacement, Vince Tyra, was the chairman of the school’s finance committee and is a successful businessman. While he played baseball for rival Kentucky, his ties to Louisville run deep in the family. His father Charlie Tyra is the all-time leading rebounder for the Cardinals and was the first All-American in school history.
In the introductory press conference, Tyra made very clear his intentions of the program. A sign next to him stated that the goal is “To maintain the highest level of ethics throughout the University athletic program.”
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As of now, Tyra has been hired on an interim basis while the Board of Trustees will decide on his permanent status sometime later this month.
While losing Pitino was big for the basketball program, Jurich did plenty during his 20 years with the school. With Tyra’s hire, a new era at Louisville has officially begun.