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2013-14 KANSAS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
director of athletics Dr. Sheahon (SHAY-un) Zenger is a coach at heart. But when KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little introduced the Hays, Kan., native as KU’s Athletics Director January 3, 2011, he promised not to call any plays for the coaches. That doesn’t mean, though, that he won’t be right there with them - and their student-athletes - every step of the way. For it’s his genuine care for coaches and studentathletes that has stamped his career in intercollegiate athletics.
Dr. Sheahon Zenger third year at Kansas
Kansas State, 1988, 1992 Kansas, 1996
zenger File Alma Mater . . . . . . . . . . Kansas State, 1988, 1992
While focusing his attention on academics, he managed to stay involved in the world of intercollegiate athletics, and specifically football. ‘Involved’ may be an understatement. In 1993 Zenger and a friend founded American Football Quarterly, a magazine for coaches. Zenger served as publisher and then editor - until 1995, when he sold his share of the by-then-thriving magazine.
Zenger comes to KU after serving for five years as athletics director at Illinois State University, helping steer ISU Athletics to a place of prominence in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Redbirds won a conferenceleading seven league titles during the 2009-10 season and captured their second Valley All-Sports Trophy in three years.
Still, coaching stayed in his blood. After earning his doctorate, Zenger in 1996 signed on as the recruiting coordinator for the brand-new NCAA Division I football program at the University of South Florida. A year later he joined the University of Wyoming football staff as recruiting coordinator and within two years rose to assistant head coach, a position he still considers one of the crowning achievements of his career.
At the beginning, Zenger wasn’t headed toward a career in administration. He was nine years old when he told his father he wanted to be a coach, and it didn’t take long for that dream to materialize. After playing football at Fort Hays State and Mid-American Nazarene College, he finished his undergraduate degree at Kansas State. Even before he received his bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education in 1988, Zenger was assisting the football coaches at Manhattan (Kan.) High School. His first college football coaching job came at Drake University right after graduation.
Zenger stayed at Wyoming through the 2000 season before returning to Kansas State. He spent a year in the KSU College of Business, raising more than $2 million and restructuring its development program with research and planning. He rejoined KSU Athletics in 2001 as assistant athletics director for major gifts, helping KSU initiate important development strategies. In 2002 he was appointed KSU’s associate athletics director for development, a position he held until 2005, when he was named Athletics Director at Illinois State.
In 1989, at age 23, Zenger joined Bill Snyder’s staff at Kansas State as one of the nation’s youngest fulltime football staff members; he served in key roles as assistant recruiting coordinator and director of football operations. Zenger completed his master’s degree in journalism and mass communication in 1992 while helping Snyder bring Wildcat football to unprecedented success.
A published author and researcher, Zenger served for three years on the NCAA Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement. He also served on two NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Division committees, and was a member of the Executive Committee of NACDA’s Division I FCS Athletic Directors Association.
Kansas, 1996
Wife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pam Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Luke, Abby, Jake
ADMINISTRATIVE History 2001-05 . . . . . . Kansas State (Assoc. Athletic Dir.) 2005-11 . . . . . . . . .Illinois State (Athletic Director) 2011-present . . . . . . . . .Kansas (Athletic Director)
COACHING History 1987 . . . . . . . . . . . . Manhattan HS (Head Coach) 1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Drake (Assistant Coach) 1989-92 . . . . . . . . Kansas State (Dir. Football Ops) 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . South Florida (Rec. Coord.) 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wyoming (Rec. Coord.) 1998-2000 . . . . . Wyoming (Assistant Head Coach)
It became evident, though, that more than coaching was in store for Zenger. He sought advice from then-KU Chancellor Gene Budig, who convinced him to pursue a Ph.D. at KU. As he completed his Ph.D. in educational policy and leadership (1996), Zenger contributed communications and special projects support to the office of the executive vice-chancellor, Ed Meyen, and wrote the professional life history of then-chancellor Del Shankel, while strengthening his understanding of university leadership at the highest levels.
He is also a member of many professional and university organizations, including the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the American Football Coaches Association. Zenger is married to the former Pam McAnarney. The couple has three children: Luke, Abby and Jake.