In a somewhat surprising move, University of Denver Athletics Associate Vice Chancellor for External Affairs Ryan Peck has decided to leave DU to take a similar senior athletic administration position at the University of North Texas, in DU’s former Sun Belt Conference. Peck came to DU from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2011 and was promoted to his current position in 2014.
“Ryan Peck is one of the bright up and coming leaders in collegiate athletics,” said North Texas Athletic Director Wren Baker (North Texas AD) in a prepared statement. “[Peck] has broad experience at the University of Denver and has been instrumental in the tremendous progress made there. He will bring a new energy to our external units with a particular focus on fundraising and revenue generation,” according to a Sept 30 article in the Mean Green Blog of the Denton (Texas) Record and Chronicle.
Peck had quite a portfolio at DU for an athletic administrator in his early 30s, where he oversaw fundraising, ticketing, marketing, communications, corporate sponsorships, creative, and technical services. One of his largest projects has been fundraising for the new men’s hockey locker room, which is expected to be remodeled following this upcoming season.
Baker, 37, was interim Athletic Director at the University of Missouri before taking the UNT athletic director job in July of 2016. Baker has since restructured UNT’s athletic department and his hiring of Peck is targeted at growing UNT’s small list of less than 1,000 donors (currently fifth place in fundraising among SBC schools), despite being a Division I football school. Peck has grown DU’s Pioneer Movement fundraising program to increasing success. The Pioneer Movement had about 1,200 donors in 2011 (when Peck joined DU) and has since doubled to over 2,400 donors in 2016, according to the most recent program brochure.
On a personal note, Ryan was one of the people who supported and encouraged many of us to intensify our our interest in Pioneer athletics. He is a tireless worker and his enthusiasm for DU was apparent to even the most casual friend of DU athletics. He also was great friend of DU alums and of this blog, LetsGoDU. His ambition and talent in this new role at North Texas will add D-I football to his resume and perhaps catapult him into a power conference AD role someday – or perhaps he could be a candidate to return to Denver if and when DU AD Peg Bradley-Doppes decides to retire or moves to another school at some point in the future.
No immediate replacement for Peck has been named. Bradley-Doppes has proven to be an excellent talent evaluator during her tenure at DU. However, filling the shoes of this multi-talented Associate Vice Chancellor will be a big challenge.
One thing is certain — Ryan will always be a Denver Pioneer. He will be missed prowling the hallways and bleachers of almost all Pioneer home games talking to fans.
Best of luck, Ryan! Go Mean Green Pioneers! (We just couldn’t do it, Ryan).
Part of me is really happy for Ryan to get a shot with a D-I football athletic department like UNT, which is great experience for an aspiring athletic director that he can’t get at DU. He’s a quick study and he’ll do very well there.
But the other part of me is disappointed, because he is a very talented guy and DU was benefitting from those talents. You don’t rise to the level he did at the age he is without a lot of drive and talent. Would love to see him come back to DU as athletic director someday once he’s more seasoned…
Peg has a good eye for hiring talented people, and I’d like to see his position filled by another young, driven person who can sell and drive greater outside interest in the program, not another bureaucrat who can’t move the needle on DU sports.
Mixed feeling all around. Great opportunity for Ryan but losing a very talented Pioneer family member. Great points, Puck.
Sorry to RYAN leave, but it appears to be an upward move for him. North Texas has been a Conference USA member since 2013. They have also been mentioned as a potential Mountain West or American Conference member, if an opening occurs. Hopefully, he will be considered as the DU Athletic Director next time an opening occurs. Good luck, Ryan
When is he actually leaving DU? If it’s now, or soon, crappy to leave after school started and sports are into the second or third month of their season, and hockey starting..
As I understand it, he will be around for another week. It is never a great time to leave any job. Likely, with football in full-swing, North Texas wants to get Ryan in front of their football boosters quickly. The key transition for DU will be tying up loose ends on the new hockey locker room expansion. In my opinion, most of the other stuff can be assumed by existing staff on-site at least temporarily.
Most planning takes place during the summer – that is the worst time to have a senior level departure.
Part of me is really happy for Ryan to get a shot with a D-I football athletic department like UNT, which is great experience for an aspiring athletic director that he can’t get at DU. He’s a quick study and he’ll do very well there.
But the other part of me is disappointed, because he is a very talented guy and DU was benefitting from those talents. You don’t rise to the level he did at the age he is without a lot of drive and talent. Would love to see him come back to DU as athletic director someday once he’s more seasoned…
Peg has a good eye for hiring talented people, and I’d like to see his position filled by another young, driven person who can sell and drive greater outside interest in the program, not another bureaucrat who can’t move the needle on DU sports.
Mixed feeling all around. Great opportunity for Ryan but losing a very talented Pioneer family member. Great points, Puck.
Sorry to RYAN leave, but it appears to be an upward move for him. North Texas has been a Conference USA member since 2013. They have also been mentioned as a potential Mountain West or American Conference member, if an opening occurs. Hopefully, he will be considered as the DU Athletic Director next time an opening occurs. Good luck, Ryan
When is he actually leaving DU? If it’s now, or soon, crappy to leave after school started and sports are into the second or third month of their season, and hockey starting..
As I understand it, he will be around for another week. It is never a great time to leave any job. Likely, with football in full-swing, North Texas wants to get Ryan in front of their football boosters quickly. The key transition for DU will be tying up loose ends on the new hockey locker room expansion. In my opinion, most of the other stuff can be assumed by existing staff on-site at least temporarily.
Most planning takes place during the summer – that is the worst time to have a senior level departure.
Seat 7 and i have a little history with UNT – it used to be NTSU (nutts to you) and their mascot was a winged worm (allegedly an eagle) It was green of course because the only football item of note from there was Mean Joe Green. Good school, but it is in Texas. More bio information for me – i usually describe my college career as going to school in Kansas for two years and i did three years in Texas.
As with most DU departures, we hope ti works out for the very best, but hate to see him go – especially since we had some contact with him over the years and he helped us, gracefully even, every time.
…Seat8
Seat 7 and i have a little history with UNT – it used to be NTSU (nutts to you) and their mascot was a winged worm (allegedly an eagle) It was green of course because the only football item of note from there was Mean Joe Green. Good school, but it is in Texas. More bio information for me – i usually describe my college career as going to school in Kansas for two years and i did three years in Texas.
As with most DU departures, we hope ti works out for the very best, but hate to see him go – especially since we had some contact with him over the years and he helped us, gracefully even, every time.
…Seat8