With Bubba Cunningham departing Ball State University to take the athletic director position at the University of Tulsa, Ken Brown steps in as interim athletic director at Ball State for the remainder of the school year.
Brown, who's worked at Ball State for 14 years, takes the athletics director position after being associate athletics director for business affairs since 2003. Before then, he worked at Ball State as the Director of Business Services.
"Obviously, I was very happy," Brown said. "One of my goals, hopefully, before I retire is to be an athletic director, so this at least gets me a start."
As assistant athletics director, Brown was in charge of business services, internal operations of the department, and he helped with the football team.
"I'm excited for Ken," baseball coach Greg Beals said. "I think Ken has done a great job as our business manager. He has a great feel for Ball State athletics, where we are and where we can go. It's a very positive move."
Several people inside the department said his experience in business affairs should help him take over the position.
"He's obviously the most in-tune about the budget and revenue aspects of college athletics," Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs Joe Hernandez said. "I think he has a lot to offer."
Brown's career started as a high school math teacher in 1975, and seven years later, he became Ticket Manager for the University of Louisville. Before coming to Ball State in 1991, he was the University of North Carolina's Director of Ticket Operations for eight years.
"With that time and experience, he brings a knowledge and understanding of who we are as an athletic department," Beals said.
That experience inside the department helped him land the interim position, Brown said.
"I think it does help to understand how things work at a university," Brown said. "Every university has its own little way of doing things. Knowing a lot of people who work on campus and - who this person needs to work with - certainly helped."
Brown begins his athletic director duties on Nov 11.
"He's got 15 years of experience and knows the ins and out of everything we do," Associate Athletics Director for Community Relations Matt Wolfert said. "It makes for a smooth transition."
Women's tennis coach Kathy Bull said the experienced staff who Brown will oversee should help the transition.
"The best thing for Ken is he has a very seasoned group of coaches and administrators, and I think he's going to trust them to do their jobs," Bull said.
For the remainder of the school year, Brown said he'll focus on making sure each athletic team's season goes unhitched, as well as continuing to plan Scheumann Stadium's renovations.
"We've met with the architects once, and they're supposed to come back with - I'm sure - some revised plans, and so the interim athletic director will be involved heavily with that," he said.
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