Alter grad now more than six years into run as athletic director at Duquesne

Harper, a Bellbrook native, has a supporting role in a way these days even though he’s the man in charge at Duquesne University. He has served as athletic director since 2015 and got that job after years working in the University of Dayton athletic department.

Harper knew he wanted to work in athletics when he was a little kid keeping his own stat books.

“I always say an athletics director’s job is very simple,” Harper said. “It is to facilitate success for coaches and student athletes. So I feel competitive, trying to have the facilities for them, trying to get the next best thing for them and always making sure I can make them successful. When you’re watching a game, it’s the hardest thing to do because you don’t control it, but nonetheless you feel that competitive peace of mind. It’s what’s so important.”

Harper was a senior at Alter in the 1986-87 season when Petrocelli, who would win 831 games in his career, won his 400th game. He started along with fellow seniors Donoher, Graham, Chris Shane and junior Bob Vriend. Graham played football at Ohio State, spent 11 seasons in the NFL and is now the head coach at Trotwood-Madison.

Harper, who also played football at Alter, graduated from Wright State and and then earned a master’s degree at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. That’s where he began his career in athletics in 1994 as an assistant football coach. In 1998, he became an associate athletic director at Dayton. He held several titles during his years at Dayton, including director of advancement, and the roles prepared him well for what he has accomplished at Duquesne.

The university spent 22 months and $45 million upgrading its basketball arena, the old Palumbo Center, which is now called UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. Duquesne played Dayton in front of a mostly empty arena in 2021 in the first game at the renovated facility, but this is the first season the Dukes have played in their new home without capacity restrictions. Dayton fans, who always travel well to the game in Pittsburgh, saw the building for the first time Jan. 15 in a 72-52 Dayton victory.

“We’re really pleased with how it came out,” Harper said. “There’s not a bad seat in the place.”

Harper hopes the investment pays off in the long run.

“We put a lot into what is critical for Duquesne, and that’s our sports performance area,” Harper said. “We’ve got to do a better job of developing our athletes and making them better performers. We put a lot into our academic areas. All the areas that are key touch points for recruits, we wanted to make sure we got them as gold as possible. Gold, silver, bronze level, we wanted to see everything as gold as possible. We’re starting to see better recruiting across the board, but specifically obviously for men’s basketball this is going to help us. We’re redoing our locker room this offseason, too. We’ve just got to keep the arms race going.”

Duquesne’s men’s basketball program had momentum when the Cooper Fieldhouse opened. The hiring of coach Keith Dambrot in 2017 sparked the program, and the Dukes improved their win totals in his first three seasons, culminating in a 21-9 record in 2019-20. Then the pandemic hit. The team was 9-9 last season and didn’t get to experience the new arena with packed stands.

“It was one of the toughest things to go through because we had it all set up and then no fans,” Harper said. “It was a bump in the road that was really disappointing, but we’re getting back. Our season tickets are at an all-time high, and we’ve just got to better on the floor. Everything else is in place.”