Louisville Athletic Director Vince Tyra Resigns
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - On the same day that they lost president Dr. Neeli Bendapudi to Penn State, the University of Louisville has now lost their athletic director as well.
Vince Tyra, who had been rumored since last week to be tied to the athletic director position at Florida State, turned in his letter of resignation Thursday and was accepted by the university, per UofL spokesman John Karman.
"I wish the best for the University of Louisville and its athletic department in the years to come," Tyra wrote in the letter.
The letter in which Tyra submitted was effective Wednesday, Dec. 8. An interim AD at Louisville has yet to be named, although it is expected to be deputy athletic director Josh Heird.
The move comes after a bizarre set of events over the last week. On Friday, Tyra made the decision to retain head football coach Scott Satterfield for the 2022 season, only for his name to pop up as a surprise entry for the vacant AD position at Florida State less than two hours later.
Two days later, Forde reported that there was "mutual and serious" interest between Tyra and the Seminoles, and that his relations with Bendapudi were "strained enough that a potential parting could be considered mutual".
Following three consecutive closed-door executive sessions, the UofL Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that they had waived the non-complete and 30-day notice of termination clauses from Tyra's contract.
This cleared any contractual roadblocks that would have prevented him from taking the Florida State job. However, FSU would announce just hours after Tyra's resignation their hiring of Michael Alford as their next AD.
A Louisville native who also served as the university's president for intercollegiate athletics, Tyra was named the interim athletic director at Louisville in October of 2017 following the firing of then-AD Tom Jurich. He was elevated to a full time role six months later.
Since his arrival, Tyra has put an emphasis on major capital projects such as the Women’s Athletics Capital Campaign, the creation of the Cardinals Strategically Organizing Against Racism Committee. Louisville has several upgrades in progress or complete under Tyra's watch, such as Denny Crum Hall, expansion to Cardinal Stadium and a new indoor baseball facility.
However, his two main hires - Satterfield and head men's basketball coach Chris Mack - have so far had mixed results. Satterfield is 18-18 in three years with the Cardinals while going to two bowls, and Mack was 51-26 in his first three years with just one NCAA Tournament appearance.
Tyra graduated from Trinity High School in Louisville in 1984, and was a four-year baseball letterman and two-time team captain at the University of Kentucky. His father Charlie Tyra was a consensus All-America at UofL, who led the Cardinals to the 1956 NIT Championship, and is one of four players with his jersey number retired at UofL
(Photo of Vince Tyra: Marty Pearl - Special to Courier Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC
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