Athletics Director Morgan Burke

With a blue-collar work ethic that embodies the Boilermaker spirit, Morgan Burke has worked tirelessly to ensure every student-athlete has a positive experience at Purdue University.

Now in his 19th year as director of intercollegiate athletics at his alma mater, Burke has set a high standard for the future. The department's strategic plan for 2008 to 2014 outlines its goals for "Developing Champions / Developing Scholars / Developing Citizens." Administrators have coined the term "25/85 Club" to articulate a vision of an intercollegiate athletics organization that achieves an average finish in the top 25 across all sports and has a Graduation Success Rate of 85 percent. Precious few institutions achieve this lofty status.

In June of 2010, Burke was honored as the Football Bowl Subdivision Central Region Under Armour AD of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. He has the sixth-longest tenure among current athletics directors at FBS institutions.

Burke has been called the athletics director who came down from the grandstands because he was an avid fan and member of the John Purdue Club long before he was appointed to lead the department. No one wants to see the Boilermakers prevail in competition more than Burke, and few expend more energy in cheering them on to victory.

In 1992, the Purdue Board of Trustees voted unanimously to declare the intention to establish "a nationally prominent athletic organization that is excellent in all respects." That meant making up ground on the other schools in the Big Ten Conference and achieving in the classroom at the level of the general student body. It meant winning and playing by the rules. And it meant building new facilities and improving others to attract top coaches and student-athletes to West Lafayette.

When Burke succeeded George King as AD on Jan. 1, 1993, he pledged to build on the foundation already in place. Working with coaches and staff, aggressive goals were set.

On the athletics side, Burke's expectation was to improve the position of Purdue teams in the Big Ten and nationally. Significant strides have been made on both fronts. In 2009-10, 14 teams finished in the upper half of the Big Ten, the high-water mark in Burke's time at Purdue. On the national scene, the Boilermakers have gone from 81st in 1994-95 to 35th in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 among 300 NCAA Division I programs.

Two teams have won NCAA championships - women's basketball in 1999 and women's golf in 2010 - while six student-athletes have captured a combined 11 individual crowns. The football team embarked on a run of 10 bowl games in 12 years from 1997 to 2008, and the men's basketball team achieved an unprecedented string of back-to-back-to-back Big Ten regular-season championships in 1994, 1995 and 1996. All told, Burke has overseen 18 regular-season conference championships and nine tournament titles.

Similar excellence was expected in the classroom - to match or surpass the overall grade-point average of the general student body. That goal has been achieved each of the last 28 semesters. Following the 2011 spring semester, the cumulative GPA for all current Purdue student-athletes was 3.03. The current four-year average Graduation Success Rate stands at 77 percent.

Furthermore, Burke articulated an expectation for all areas of Intercollegiate Athletics to make measurable improvement.

Purdue Intercollegiate Athletics is a self-supporting auxiliary enterprise - one of just 22 such NCAA Division I programs - that receives no university or state funding and writes a check to the university for scholarships. As a result, financial resources constantly need to be expanded to support all sports. Burke has challenged Purdue alumni and fans to get on board to propel Boilermaker athletics to greatness. He set a goal of doubling the size of the 4,350-member John Purdue Club as well as doubling the $2.5 million raised annually to support student-athletes. Both aspirations have been achieved, with JPC memberships closing in on 9,000 and annual dollars raised to support scholarships and academic support services in excess of $6 million.

Recognizing the need for contemporary facilities, Burke and his staff have identified and addressed multiple construction and renovation projects since the start of the new millennium.

In spring 2001, work started on the $70 million dollar renovation of Ross-Ade Stadium. The remade Ross-Ade boasts vastly expanded concessions and restrooms along a wider concourse, new concrete throughout, wider aisles and individual seats, and increased seating for fans in wheelchairs. The crown of this project is the Ross-Ade Pavilion, which includes suites, indoor and outdoor club seats, the Buchanan and Shively stadium clubs, and facilities for the press and game-day staff.

The Boilermaker Aquatic Center - featuring the Doris Z. Holloway Pool - opened its doors in 2001 and since then has played host to multiple championship events, including the 2005 and 2010 NCAA Women's Championships and 2006 U.S. Open, plus four Big Ten Championships and three NCAA Diving Zones.

Purdue's golf complex has undergone several facelifts over the past decade. Pete Dye's redesign of the "north course" - now known as the Kampen Course - instantly placed Purdue's golf facilities on the national map, as the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex was the site of the 2003 NCAA Women's Championships and the 2008 NCAA Men's Championships. The newest addition is the Tom Spurgeon indoor training center, which was dedicated in 2005.

Purdue's volleyball program, which advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 2010, received several major upgrades to its court within the Intercollegiate Athletic Facility and Holloway Gymnasium. The volleyball court was revamped over the summer of 2006 and named after Boilermaker supporters Ron and Kay Belin.

The Dennis J. and Mary Lou Schwartz Tennis Center opened its doors in December of 2006, in time to play host to the 2007 Big Ten Men's Championships and subsequently the 2008 Big Ten Women's Championships.

Most recently, the Mollenkopf Athletic Center got a makeover during the spring and summer of 2006. The field was named after Richard, Alice and Kimra Schleicher.

Major work has continued into this decade. In May of 2007, the Board of Trustees awarded a contract to HNTB Architecture of Kansas City, Mo., for a complete makeover of Mackey Arena, the venerable home of Boilermaker basketball for the last 40-plus years. In addition to revitalizing the campus landmark as a basketball arena, the $99.5 million Mackey Complex project will benefit all student-athletes with the addition of new sports medicine and strength and weight training facilities. The Drew and Brittany Brees Student-Athlete Academic Center - on the second floor of the Intercollegiate Athletic Facility - will increase the space for academic support services from 6,500 to 11,000 square feet. All told, 70 percent of the nearly 280,000 square feet of new or renovated space in the Mackey project will affect and benefit all student-athletes. Mackey will be rededicated the weekend of Nov. 10-12, 2011.

HNTB also was retained to plan the development of a master plan for the "Northwest Site" - where soccer and tennis currently reside - to include an upgrade to the Varsity Soccer Complex and a new baseball stadium. Both will be completed by 2012.

Another goal of Burke's was to involve former student-athletes in the life of the department, to counsel and question, and provide ideas to keep the organization sharp. In 1993, he established an advisory council made up of 24 student-athlete alumni. The group meets annually to hear reports and make suggestions to Burke and senior administrators.

In 2003, former student-athletes found a new home in Intercollegiate Athletics with the founding of the Varsity P Club. A subset of the John Purdue Club, the Varsity P Club welcomes back Boilermaker athletes each fall.

Front row (left to right): Kate, Joyce, Kate (Joyce and Ryan's daughter) and Ryan (Joyce's husband); back row (left to right): Morgan, Patrick, Molly (Morgan Jr.'s wife) and Morgan Jr.

A 1973 industrial management graduate and captain of the swim team his senior year, Burke was a member of Phi Beta Kappa scholastic honorary. After graduation, he continued at Purdue and earned a master's degree in industrial relations in 1975. In 1980, he graduated with a law degree from John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

Burke pursued a successful career with Inland Steel Co. after law school, moving through 13 positions in an 18-year span. He was vice president when he departed to return to Purdue.

Beyond Purdue, Burke presently serves on the NCAA Leadership Council, which identifies important issues surrounding the future of the NCAA and reports to the Board of Directors. He previously was a member of several Big Ten boards (Executive, Program/Budget and Compliance committees) and NCAA working groups (Championships and Competitions and Postseason Football committees). He was a vanguard for cost containment before the economic downturn forced other departments to take notice.

The 59-year-old Burke is married to the former Catherine J. (Kate) Mullane, a Purdue alumna and pharmacist. They have three children - Joyce, Morgan Jr. and Patrick - who are Purdue graduates. Joyce is working as a materials engineer; she and her husband, Ryan, and daughter, Kate, reside in Austin, Texas. Morgan Jr. is a landscape architect and works with a firm in San Francisco, where he lives with his wife, Molly. Patrick is an engineer for General Electric in Chicago.

Senior Administrative Staff

Roger Blalock
Senior Associate Athletics Director

Nancy Cross
Senior Associate Athletics Director/Senior Woman Administrator

Glenn Tompkins
Senior Associate Athletics Director - Business

Ed Howat
Associate Athletics Director - Student Services

Barb Kapp
Associate Athletics Director - Marketing/Technology/Ticketing

Tom Reiter
Associate Athletics Director

Tom Schott
Associate Athletics Director - Communications

Steve Simmerman
Associate Athletics Director - Facilities

All-Time Purdue Athletics Directors

1904-05	Oliver Cutts
1906-14	Hugh Nicol
1915-18	Oliver Cutts
1919-30	Nelson Kellogg
1931-36	Noble Kizer
1937	Robert Woodworth (acting)
1938-39	Noble Kizer
1940	Edward Elliott (acting)
1941	Allen "Mal" Elward
1942-71	Guy "Red" Mackey
1971-92	George King Jr.
1992	John Hicks (interim)
1992-	Morgan Burke

Purdue Boilermakers