How new Wichita State athletic director Kevin Saal became a childhood fan of Shockers
When he begins his new role as the Wichita State athletic director in mid-July, it won’t be the first time Kevin Saal has rooted for the Shockers.
Last Friday’s introductory press conference at Koch Arena was a Sunflower State homecoming for Saal (pronounced like “Saul”) and his wife, Jennifer, who are both from Manhattan.
When he was growing up in Manhattan, the Wichita State baseball program was at the peak of its power in the late 1980s and early 1990s. That’s when Saal first remembers the Shockers entering his consciousness.
Rather than root for K-State, Saal was converted to a Wichita State baseball fan by his older sister’s boyfriend, who was the catcher for Shocker star Darren Dreifort at Wichita Heights.
“He brainwashed me pretty good to love Wichita State baseball,” said Saal, 44. “It was an awesome time to be a fan.”
While he was introduced at an early age to Shocker baseball, Saal also learned from an early age he wanted to work on a college campus because he admired the work of his parents: his father, Frank, headed Kansas State’s psychology department, while his mother, Cathie, worked in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“Whether we liked it or not, we heard a lot of stories about college students when we were kids,” said Saal, the youngest of three siblings. “I think that’s where my life’s journey kind of started. I grew up on a college campus and have never really left.”
Becoming an athletic director was not the plan in 1999 when he completed his undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University, where he was also a Division I swimmer, and began looking at options for grad school.
Saal, a psychology major, wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and decided to pursue his master’s degree in sport psychology at the University of Kansas. His life’s path forever changed the first week he showed up in Lawrence with his newly-wedded wife, Jennifer, who was expecting their first-born son at the time, and learned KU had just discontinued its sports psychology program.
“We had just signed a lease on a house, so we were going to be in Lawrence no matter what,” Saal said. “So I started looking at other options and I saw they had a sport administration program, so that’s what I ended up finishing up my master’s degree in.”
After earning his Master of Science degree in athletics administration from KU in 2000, Saal began his steady rise at K-State, working as an event coordinator from 2000-05, then spent two years as a director of operations at the University of Missouri-Kansas City before landing a job at the University of Kentucky, where he spent 12 years and eventually worked his way up to executive associate athletic director, and he has spent the last three-plus years as Murray State’s athletic director.
Since listening to the inspiring stories his parents once told him of college students when he was a kid, Saal developed a passion for helping student-athletes achieve success.
“My family taught that honesty, transparency, hard work and ethical conduct were critical to how we operate our business,” Saal said at his press conference. “And our athletic department will do that the Shocker way.
“I really enjoy serving today’s student-athletes,” Saal expanded to The Eagle. “I know here at Murray State, we are 40% first generation, and I know there’s a significant subset at Wichita State that are first generation. I really enjoy serving that population that are doing something for the first time in their family’s history.”
After spending the last 15 years living in Kentucky, Saal said the appeal of returning to his home state and closer to his and his wife’s family played at least a small factor in his decision to pursue the job.
Saal joked that last week’s news has unified his family’s in-state rooting interests for the first time ever.
“We have a house divided: I have one sister who is a big Jayhawk fan and then another sister who’s a really big K-State fan,” Saal said. “But they’re all going to be Wichita State fans now.”
This story was originally published June 21, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
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