Kansas turns to Zenger as new AD

LAWRENCE — The search committee in charge of finding the next athletic director at Kansas heard early on that Sheahon (pronounced SHAY-un) Zenger wanted to be considered for the position, which made plenty of sense.

Zenger, the current athletic director at Illinois State, is a Kansas native. He was born in Salina and spent part of his childhood living in Lawrence before relocating to Hays. He received a doctorate degree from KU in 1996 and worked as an intern in the chancellor's office. Still, search committee chairman Ray Evans didn't know just how badly Zenger wanted the job until Zenger provided him a document detailing his first 90 days at Kansas.

"We didn't have a lot of guys we were talking to with their 90-day plan," Evans said. "He had prepared so well for this."

Zenger's preparation and Sunflower roots did not make him KU's first choice to replace former athletic director Lew Perkins. But after Tulsa athletic director Bubba Cunningham walked away from the negotiating table on Dec. 16 and signed an extension with Tulsa, Evans was on the phone with Zenger the next day. On Sunday, two-and-a-half weeks later, KU chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little announced that Zenger would be the next Kansas athletic director.

"He's the right guy," Evans said. "At the end of the day, Bubba waffled, and just the fact that he waffled means he probably wasn't the right fit. And it led us back to Sheahon, which led us back to absolutely the right fit for us."

Cunningham, 48, and Zenger, 44, are ambitious administrators from schools without automatic qualifying status to the Bowl Championship Series. Ultimately, one wanted to be at Kansas, and the other didn't.

Zenger will be officially introduced today in Lawrence at a 1:30 p.m. news conference. While making his first comments as the leader of the Jayhawks, he will likely be quizzed about his connection to rival Kansas State, where he attended undergraduate school and worked as a fundraiser during 2001-05 in the K-State athletic department. Evans said all it took was some deeper drilling to figure out they would not be hiring a Wildcat spy.

"My earliest memories are in Lawrence, Kansas, watching KU football and basketball games," Zenger said. "Sometimes in life things come full circle. The opportunity to stand side-by-side with KU's student-athletes, coaches, administrators, donors and fans gives me great joy."

Zenger's stints at Kansas State — including his first in the early 1990s as director of football operations — actually helped him land the KU gig. Kansas was looking for a candidate with intricate knowledge of building a successful football program, and Zenger saw it first-hand working under Bill Snyder at K-State and later at South Florida with former coach Jim Leavitt. He eventually was hired at Wyoming and rose to assistant head coach in 1998.

Zenger has been at Illinois State since 2005 and recently led the program to its second Missouri Valley Conference All-Sports Trophy in three years. In 2007, he hired former KU assistant basketball coach Tim Jankovich to coach the Redbirds. Illinois State does not have a Football Bowl Subdivision football program.

One of the reasons Cunningham emerged as KU's leader was his proven ability to build football programs. At Ball State, he hired Brady Hoke, who in 2008 led the school to a No. 12 ranking in the BCS. At Tulsa, he hired Todd Graham, who has gone 36-17 in four seasons.

Cunningham was also attractive because he spent 15 years at Notre Dame, his alma mater, and could potentially see KU through any future conference realignment.

With Cunningham out of the picture, KU's next choice needed to provide the school similar protection that it wouldn't be left out of a BCS conference. The search committee felt strongly that more movement was possible and that the candidate needed to have connections to the Big Ten in particular.

Zenger convinced KU that he had good relationships with several current Big Ten athletic directors and many across the country. Zenger's three years on the NCAA's reinstatement committee — which is in charge of deciding eligibility issues for student-athletes — was key to him developing a variety of contacts in a short time.

"He has a network that's unusual for most guys who are 44 years old," Evans said.

High on Zenger's to-do list for his first 90 days — which will begin Feb. 1 — will be to restore trust with KU's donors and fans after an embarrassing year.

In March, federal and university authorities were investigating the illegal sale of KU football and men's basketball tickets. The investigations found that $2 million worth of tickets had been misused and led to the resignations of at least seven top athletic department staff members, five of whom were indicted in November by a federal grand jury.

Gray-Little's office also investigated an allegation that Perkins had improved basketball seating for a KU vendor in exchange for the personal use of exercise equipment. The university cleared Perkins of wrongdoing, but he faces a complaint by the Kansas Governmental Ethics committee, alleging he broke a state law regarding the acceptance of gifts by state employees.

In early September, Perkins came to a mutual decision with Gray-Little for him to retire a year ahead of schedule.

With Zenger's appearance in Lawrence today, KU can finally start to move forward.

"We had a standard question: 'Who should be the face of the athletic department?' " Evans said. "Most of the guys answered the athletic director. Zenger said, 'Well, the coaches of each sport.' He said the AD's job is to serve the coaches. That helped him stand out to me."

This story was originally published January 3, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Kansas turns to Zenger as new AD."