Larry Ivy Named UK Athletics Director

LARRY IVY NAMED UK ATHLETICS DIRECTOR

Larry Ivy will begin his new duties July 1, pending approval of the UK Board of Trustees at its April 4 meeting. He will succeed C.M. Newton.

March 21, 2000 – (Lexington, Ky.) – Larry Ivy, senior associate director of athletics, has been named University of Kentucky's next director of athletics by the UK Athletic Association board of directors. Ivy succeeds C.M. Newton, who retires June 30 after a storied 11 years in the top UK sports administration post.

University of Kentucky President Charles T. Wethington Jr. made the recommendation during Monday’s regular UK Athletic Association board meeting. After a search for a new athletics director, an advisory committee recommended that Wethington appoint Ivy to the post. Ivy will begin his new duties July 1, pending approval of the UK Board of Trustees at its April 4 meeting.

As athletics director, Ivy will oversee general operations of the UK Athletic Association and its $36 million annual budget, 22 varsity sports and 150 employees.

Ivy came to UK in 1969 at the age of 26 as the nation’s youngest director of housing. In 1976, he joined the UK Athletics Association as an assistant athletics director, overseeing the fiscal affairs of the association. When C.M. Newton joined UK Athletics as athletics director in 1989, he promoted Ivy to associate athletics director for internal affairs, making Ivy his top assistant.

Ivy has served in his current post since 1993, with responsibilities including overseeing the day-to-day operations of the association in the absence of the director, handling operations and serving as game management director for the men’s basketball and football teams, and coordinating facilities, maintenance, grounds, tickets, accounting, purchasing and data processing. Ivy was tournament manager for nine NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament rounds in Lexington, including the 1985 Final Four. He also has managed several SEC tournaments.

He was named Southeast Conference Housing Director of the Year in 1975 and holds an honorary membership in UK's K Association. He is chairman of the SEC’s Men’s Basketball Tournament Ticket Committee and was named the 1994 NCAA Business Manager of the Year by the College Athletic Business Managers of America – the organization’s highest honor. He is an honorary member of Omicron Delta Kappa, an honor society that emphasizes academics and leadership. He holds a 1967 undergraduate and a 1968 master’s of business administration degree from the University of Alabama.

C. M. Newton plans to stay in Lexington and serve as a consultant to UK Athletics, spend more time with his three children and five grandchildren and immerse himself in his hobby – bonefishing.