June 11, 2009

Dear Cougars, Colleagues and Friends –

Today our university takes another significant step forward with the naming of a new athletics director. I would like to personally invite you to the public announcement to welcome our new athletics director at 11:30 a.m. today at the Athletics/Alumni Center. Please join us there!

I’m pleased to announce that Mack B. Rhoades IV has agreed to accept this important position, succeeding Dave Maggard, who retired last month after his impressive seven-year tenure at UH. Mr. Rhoades will assume his duties very soon and will be ready to go for the fall semester.

He has been athletics director at the University of Akron since 2006, overseeing a period of unprecedented growth in their athletics program that includes a new $54-million on-campus football stadium scheduled to open in the fall and plans for basketball arena improvements. Under his leadership, Akron also made admirable progress academically. The Zips entered the 2008-2009 calendar year with 478 Deans’ List honorees since Rhoades arrived to go along with 16 championships won, including 10 Mid-American Conference Players of the Year and nine All-Americans.

He came to Akron from the University of Texas-El Paso and has also been on the athletic staffs at Yale and Marquette. That’s quite an enviable record.

In choosing our new AD, first and foremost, I wanted someone who is passionate about the University of Houston and UH athletics – and I can assure you that Mack Rhoades most certainly is. It is also essential that we have someone who is a strong leader, who has the ability to engage our community, who will ensure that the athletics program remains on sound financial footing and someone who will take a leadership role in community relations and fundraising – particularly for stadium construction. He has these qualities in abundance.

I hope you will join me in celebrating this good news and extending a warm Cougar welcome to Mack Rhoades. We are building a Tier-One university, and together, we will build a Tier-One athletics program!

Warm regards,

Renu Khator