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Wright State's Cusack to retire
Athletics director has led Raiders through numerous changes since he took position in 1982
Monday, March 24, 2008
Congratulatory telephone calls, emails and messages are pouring in to Mike Cusack, who will announce his retirement as Wright State University athletics director today, March 25.
University officials wouldn't comment after WSU sent a news release to area media on Monday afternoon to promote a "major announcement" at 11 a.m. today.
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But several people close to the athletic program confirmed Cusack's retirement was recently trumpeted in-house.
Cusack and Dan Abrahamowicz, WSU's vice president for student affairs, are scheduled to speak at the news conference in the Berry Room of the Ervin J. Nutter Center.
"I called Mike today (Monday) and congratulated him," said Candy Prystaloski, former Beavercreek mayor and longtime basketball season ticket holder. "He's going out a winner.
"Look at our record. Swimming and diving are still doing great. Baseball had a good year. We almost made the (NCAA) tournament (in men's and women's basketball). He's going out at a prime time. You always want to go out ahead — and he is."
Bob Grant, WSU's associate athletics director, and Matt Liddy, assistant athletics director, are next in command, serving as Cusack's top lieutenants. Nevertheless, Abrahamowicz — who oversees many departments, including intercollegiate athletics — is expected to announce a national search for Cusack's replacement.
Cusack, a native of Levittown, N.Y., is only the second athletics director at the university, having replaced Don Mohr in 1982. Cusack was inducted into the Queens College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986, where he was the head baseball coach and assistant men's basketball coach for nine years.
He came to WSU after four years as the AD and baseball coach at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa.
Cusack's accomplishments at WSU include:
• Being instrumental in upgrading the Raiders to an NCAA Division I program from Division II in 1987.
• Helping the fund-raising effort and coordinating the building of the Ervin J. Nutter Center in 1990.
• Helping establish the Setzer Pavilion/Mills-Morgan Center in 2005.
Under Cusack's direction, the Raiders athletics program navigated from a Division I independent to members of the Mid-Continent Conference, Midwestern Collegiate Conference and the current Horizon League.
One of his proudest accomplishments was engineering the merger of former MCC schools Butler, Detroit and Loyola with Mid-Con schools Wright State, Cleveland State, Youngstown State, Illinois-Chicago, UW-Green Bay and UW-Wisconsin into what is now the Horizon League.
Valparaiso, another former Mid-Con team, strengthened the HL when it accepted an invitation to join effective with the 2006-07 academic year.
"Mike's just been a fixture in the program for 28 years," said Bob Grote, a WSU basketball and baseball All-America (1972-76) inducted into the school's athletic Hall of Fame in 1987. "He led the program from the late-Division II years into the Division I era. Not just in basketball, but the entire athletic program.
"He's been through the building of new facilities. From a program standpoint, it's not just in name only, but it's been the physical plant. The soccer field, the baseball field, the tennis courts, the Nutter Center. It's been a complete transformation and just a growing-up period for the university."
