"Tom Jurich" is the Director of Athletics for the University of Louisville. He was hired on October 21, 1997 after holding the same positions at Colorado State University and Northern Arizona University. On March 9, 1999, he signed a contract to stay the Director of Athletics until 2012, an unprecedented offer. In 2007, Jurich was selected Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal/SportsBusiness Daily national athletic director of the year.

Tom Jurich was born in Alhambra, California and played kicker at Arcadia High School (Arcadia, California)/Arcadia High School, at Northern Arizona University, and in one game for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League, after being drafted in the 10th round of the 1978 NFL Draft.

Jurich had spent four years at Colorado State University, starting in early 1994, as athletics director. Previously, he had been the athletics director for Northern Arizona from 1988 to 1994. On October 10, 1997, he announced that he withdrew from consideration for the University of Louisville job, saying his wife had lived her life in nearby Wyoming, and that he liked living in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Prior to Jurich, Bill Olsen was the athletics director of U of L. The initial deal from U of L was five years.

More Tom Jurich on Wikipedia.

We're very hungry to be the best in the league, ... but I don't think they're going to throw us out if we're not.

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We figured the true fans would find out about it.

225

We want to win a national championship here, ... Seven years ago, it sounded ridiculous, but now I think it's a legitimate goal.

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Georgia is one of the benchmark programs in the country. We've made great strides in improving our schedule and adding a home-and-home series with a Georgia will only help improve the quality.

208

It's all out in front of us now. The sky is the limit.

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I was always trying to share our story with Mike and the members of the Big East, telling them what our vision was and where I wanted us to go, ... That paid some big dividends later, because when the time came to pull the trigger, they already knew a lot about us.

135

We were in no position to look at any conference, ... We had to try to be a good citizen within Conference USA. That was a very good fit for us at that point.

116

I'm so delighted that Rick has agreed to remain our men's basketball coach for an additional three years. When he first became our coach, I felt that if he could come here and reconstruct our program in six years, it would be a major coup for this institution. Our entire university and community will benefit immensely from his pushing that initial commitment to nine years.

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Is going to be a wonderful home for us. … We couldn't be more pleased.

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