Mike Hamrick is New Athletics Director
This article describes the new athletics director and basketball coaches. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: "Hamrick Is New Athletics Director," ECU Report June 1995, Volume 26, No. 2, page 1.
ECU's Department of Athletics saw the changing of the guard in the Spring with the hiring of Mike Hamrick as director of athletics, Anne Donovan as head women's basketball coach and the promoting of Joe Dooley from assistant to head men's basketball coach.
Hamrick, who served as athletics director at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock for the past five years, was named to the ECU AD post April 25. Hamrick, who has athletic experience at Illinois State, Kansas, Nevada-Las Vegas and Ohio, replaces Dave Hart Jr., who left ECU in mid-March to become the athletics director at Florida State.
A 1980 graduate of Marshall University, Hamrick was successful at UALR in moving the Trojans to the Sun Belt Conference and also initiated the UALR STARS (Students Taking Academic Responsibility Seriously) program to enhance student-athlete academic performance.
Donovan, a three-time All-American and Olympian was named as the Lady Pirates' head coach April 13. Donovan replaces Rosie Thompson '79, '85, who resigned the position in March to seek a post as senior women's administrator for ECU Athletics. A 1983 graduate of Old Dominion University, Donovan had served as assistant coach at her alma mater since 1989.
On May 15, Donovan became the fifth woman to be inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame. Included among her accomplishments are the NCAA record in blocked shots (801), two Olympic gold medals as a member of the U.S. squad in 1984 and 1988 and a 1994 induction into the GTE-CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
Dooley was elevated to head coach April 11, replacing Eddie Payne, who left ECU to become the men's basketball coach at Oregon State.
With the promotion, Dooley, who served on the ECU staff for the last four years, became the youngest head coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball.
A 1988 graduate of George Washington University, Dooley was a two-year starter at GWU and had served as an assistant at South Carolina from 1988 to 1991 before joining the ECU staff in 1991.
