ATHLETIC DIRECTOR TIM CURLEY Approaching his second full decade as the architect of the Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics program, Tim Curley’s dynamic and passionate leadership has been the driving force behind the Nittany Lions’ tremendous level of athletic and academic achievement. Named Director of Athletics on December 30, 1993, Curley’s leadership has positioned Penn State among the nation’s premier athletic departments. During the Nittany Lions’ 17 full years as members of the Big Ten Conference, Penn State has captured 21 NCAA Championships, more than double the next closest Big Ten schools. Curley has seen Nittany Lion squads win 64 Big Ten titles and numerous individual national and conference crowns during his 17-plus years directing Penn State’s comprehensive and nationally-respected athletic program. The Lions have won 10 NCAA Championships since March 2007. During the 2010 fall semester, the women’s volleyball team captured an unprecedented fourth consecutive NCAA Championship. Penn State won its eighth consecutive outright Big Ten crown. The women’s soccer team captured its 13th consecutive Big Ten Championship, compiling the longest string of Big Ten women’s titles all-time in any sport. In March 2011, less than two years after hiring Olympic champion Cael Sanderson as head coach, Penn State won its first Big Ten Wrestling Tournament title, with five individual titlists, and the NCAA Championship. The Nittany Lion and Lady Lion basketball teams earned NCAA Tournament berths and the fencing team finished second in the NCAA meet. In the spring of 2010, the fencing team won its 10th NCAA Championship under Curley’s watch. The women’s track and field team captured its third consecutive Big Ten outdoor title, completing the “Triple Crown” and giving Penn State five conference titles in 2009-10.
During the 2009 fall semester, the women’s volleyball team won a then-unprecedented third consecutive NCAA Championship, rallying from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Texas, 3-2, in an epic title match. Penn State extended its winning streak to 102 matches, the second-longest streak by any team in NCAA Division I history. The football team won 11 games for the 15th time under Joe Paterno and won its fourth bowl game in the past five years. The women’s cross country team won the 2009 Big Ten title, the program’s first, and the women’s indoor track and field team captured the 2010 crown. Include the 44 All-Americans and 40 first-team All-Big Ten selections (48 total first-team all-conference honorees), a record-tying student-athlete Graduation Success Rate of 89 percent and 10 Academic All-Americans and 2009-10 was another year of Success With Honor for the Nittany Lions. A 1976 Penn State graduate, Curley’s dedicated and enthusiastic leadership has helped Penn State capture 27 Big Ten championships or tournament titles the past six years, the second-highest total in the conference. In October 2010, the NCAA reported that Penn State student-athletes compiled a school-record 90 percent Graduation Success Rate, 11 points higher than the national Division I-A average. During the past 2 1/2 years, 24 Penn State student-athletes have earned Academic All-America honors. In June 2009, Curley again was recognized for his efforts in helping Penn State maintain its stature as one of the nation’s premier athletic programs with his selection as the Northeast Athletic Director-of-the-Year by NACDA. He was one of just four regional Division I-A honorees and previously received the award in 2003. Curley served as president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in 2005-06. To continue to give the coaching staff and student-athletes the resources to succeed academically and athletically, Curley has guided the most ambitious fund-raising and athletics facilities campaigns in the department’s history. The “For The Future” Campaign entered the public phase in April 2010 and will conclude in 2014. More than $128 million was raised for
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Intercollegiate Athletics through June 2008 to easily surpass the Success With Honor Campaign goal of $100 million. In September 2010, Penn State announced an $88 gift from Terry and Kim Pegula to fund a new state-of-the-art, multi-purpose arena and help to establish an NCAA Division I men’s hockey program. The gift paves the way for the creation of a Division I women’s ice hockey program and enhanced figureskating opportunities. The hockey teams will begin play in 2012-13 and Pegula Ice Arena is expected to open in the fall of 2013. The Athletics physical plant has improved substantially under Curley’s watch. The Nittany Lion Softball Park, golf clubhouse, soccer practice fields and men’s and women’s basketball offices are among projects recently completed. The most recently completed capital project was a new baseball stadium — Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The Penn State baseball team shares the state-of-the-art facility with a short-season minor league team — the State College Spikes. Curley played a significant role in developing the unique partnership for the construction of the 5,406-seat stadium, which opened in June 2006. Curley also oversees the expansive intramural/club sport programs — which included a fourth consecutive national championship in men’s hockey in 2003 and five women’s rugby national titles since 2000 — on the University Park campus, as well as general recreational activities. He’s charged as well with responsibility for the athletic and recreational programs at the Penn State Commonwealth Campuses. It is no exaggeration to say Tim Curley is someone who knows the Penn State athletic program from the ground up. A State College native, he grew up across the street from New Beaver Field where some of his most memorable days as a youngster were spent there and in Rec Hall. He parked cars, sold game programs and served as a baseball batboy. The top assistant to Athletic Director Jim Tarman, Curley succeeded Tarman when he retired in December 1993 after 35 years as a Penn State athletic administrator. Curley is married to the former Melinda Harr of Washington, Pa., and they have two children — a daughter, Devon, and a son, Tanner.