The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1087622
MARCH 2019 ■ 29 BY MATT CARTER AND RYAN TICE T he last time NC State director of athletics Debbie Yow signed a con- tract extension, it lasted until the summer of 2019. Yow's intention when she signed the deal was to retire at its expiration, but with the date drawing closer, there was no official word of what was happening. Then suddenly came the announcement on the morning of Jan. 30. Chancellor Randy Woodson had found the person he believed to be the perfect replacement for Yow, who enjoyed a very successful tenure that will be fondly remem- bered in Raleigh. The new AD will be Army West Point's Boo Corrigan. An Accomplished Hire Corrigan got emotional on occasion dur- ing his introductory press conference at Reynolds Coliseum, starting soon after he took the stage at James T. Valvano Arena. "What did Jimmy V say? If you laugh, if you think and if you cry in one day, that's a good day," Corrigan recalled. "I'm an emotional guy, so I think I fit in with that." His father, Gene, was the athletics di- rector at Notre Dame and Virginia before becoming the commissioner of the ACC from 1987-97. Corrigan is carrying on the family tradi- tion by working in athletics — starting as an "unpaid intern," he jokingly noted, for the ACC under his father and eventually work- ing his way up to athletics director at Army. Returning to the ACC and the state of North Carolina, though, takes his career to another level. Thanks to a previous stop at Duke, Cor- rigan, his wife, Kristen, and their children have already spent time in the Triangle area, but there were more reasons besides just geography and familiarity that the job in Raleigh appealed to him. One was the groundwork laid by Yow, who took the Wolfpack from No. 89 in the standings for the Learfield Directors' Cup — an annual competition to recognize the best overall collegiate athletic department in the country — the year before she was hired to a school-record No. 15 finish for 2017-18. Even more than that, Corrigan and his wife, the daughter of a former AD at Vanderbilt, were brought up as the children of athletics directors, and that was exactly what they desired for their three kids. "Our goal when we got into college ath- letics was to raise our kids around a col- lege campus," he said. "NC State student- athletes have been role models for all the young people in Raleigh, and that's what we want to be a part of. "We want to have our children around that, and we've been very fortunate and very blessed to have had the opportunity to be at a number of great schools." It was also impossible to bypass a return to the roots his father laid in the ACC when the opportunity presented itself. In the Cor- rigan household, despite all the changes over the last decade, those three letters still carry a lot of weight. "It's something in my life that's always meant a great deal — to be involved with the ACC and what the ACC stands for," he said. "It's that commitment to academics, that commitment to doing things the right way, that was equally attractive to me with NC State and the ACC as something we couldn't turn down." Corrigan has enjoyed unprecedented success at Army, on and off the field. His most notable hire was in football, where head coach Jeff Monken has led the Black Knights to numerous program firsts in five seasons, including back-to-back 10-win campaigns and three consecutive bowl bids, in addition to its highest finish (No. 19 in 2018) in the final Associated Press poll since 1958. Although the football coach is an athlet- ics director's most important hire, it's far from Corrigan's only success at West Point. In an era where schools are cutting sports, the Army AD added three varsity sports during his tenure. That was only possible thanks to his team's fundraising acumen, which led to a 30 percent increase in Army A Club mem- bership during his time at West Point and upped its total money raised by almost 300 percent, going from $2.5 million annually to approximately $7.5 million. The department's number of endow- ments also more than doubled, while it raised more than $35 million for new and renovated facilities, completing three major facility projects under Corrigan's watch. He also signed a new apparel agreement with Nike and a new pouring rights contract with Coca-Cola, enhanced ticket sales, and led a rebranding initiative that featured a new logo, among other successes. Since taking the helm in March 2011, Corrigan has seen his department win 21 league regular-season or tournament cham- pionships, while 81 cadets earned a major conference award. His efforts culminated with the 2017 NACDA (National Association of Colle- giate Directors of Athletics) Division I Ath- letics Director of the Year award. The Top Target With the help of the Parker Executive Search Firm, Woodson noted that his initial conversations in the search "were canvass- ing the universe." From there the pool was narrowed down to about 30 diverse candi- dates. Eventually, seven finalists were inter- viewed by Woodson. Corrigan swiftly rose to the top after Woodson's first face-to-face conversation with him, which happened earlier in January in Atlanta. "He brings the same skills [of Yow] in terms of focus on the budget, focus on management, focus on hiring outstanding people and empowering them to do their job," Woodson said. "In addition, because of his background in marketing and prob- ably because he is the son of Gene Corrigan, he is phenomenal at relationship building, externally and internally. "I think what you are going to have in Boo is the ability to continue to move our athletics program to an even higher level, not only because of outstanding managec- Corrigan (right, with NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson) was selected as the Division I Athletics Director of the Year in 2017 by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics during his time at Army. PHOTO BY RYAN TICE "He's a real person. He gets along with people exceptionally well, but don't let that fool you, as the general said. He holds people accountable for the jobs that they do, and in athletics that is critical." ■ NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson A PERFECT FIT Boo Corrigan Will Replace Debbie Yow As NC State's Director Of Athletics