Where does Heather Lyke rank in Pitt's modern A.D. history? Behind only Cas Myslinski? Thoughts?
Heather Lyke's ranking in modern Pitt A.D. history?
- Thread starter cbpitt2
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She is the best in decades but that doesn't say much at all. Even if you consider her average, she's far better than the crap we've had.
Acting AD Marc Boehm for hiring Dixon.
Sounds like the answers would be much different if we were all privy to the Pitt athletics financial situation.
Rigged poll…..I’m not sure that for most of modern Pitt AD history, Pitt athletics were managed at all…
Cas was the reason the golden panthers existed, correct? For that alone, he's #1..
Good post! Definitely food for thought. Cas resurrected the football and basketball (joined Big East from the Eastern 8) programs in the 70s/80s and developed the Golden Panthers I think. The different eras they served makes it hard to compare but they both have been very consequential to improving Pitt athletics - much more so than others of the modern era.
1) Cas - He resurrected the football program and took Pitt to national heights.
2) Steve P’s first tenure - We were a complete dumpster fire. He resurrected the football and basketball programs. The same also occurred with the Olympic facilities.
3) HL - She’s done a pretty good job overall.
2) Steve P’s first tenure - We were a complete dumpster fire. He resurrected the football and basketball programs. The same also occurred with the Olympic facilities.
3) HL - She’s done a pretty good job overall.
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No sane person would rank Smiley over Lyke.
Pederson 1 brought Pitt from Majors 2 to a level much higher than where Lyke's football program currently is. He hired Howland and the bball program took off. Pederson 1 vs Lyke isnt close.
Bottom of the barrel. Was left in the dust on NIL. Can't bring in corporate money (don't even know that she tries). the athletic department is running a serious deficit while she wastes over $200 million on non-revenue sports. Her first job should be as a fund raiser and she ain't. She's awfully good at spending, not so good at bringing is the bucks. All in all, Pitt's athletic departments will chug along as poorly as it always has with or without her. A chimp using a magic 8 ball will do as well as recent ADs.
Friggin Georgia Tech figured out a way to pay a 5 star recruit 800K and we got WPIAL guys fighting over spots on the PSU bench rather than playing football here.
This is pretty harsh, but all in all , point by point, at first glance seems irrefutable.....
You're gonna hate the answer, but Steve Pederson the first time around was the best we've had since the 80s. Firing a legendary coach and hiring the quarterbacks coach from Ohio State... was the kind of move that completely resurrected a dead program. Narduzzi only passed what Harris did after Pitt won the ACC (easily the best accomplishment since joining the Big East), and even then you have to wonder if that's actually bigger than taking the Johnny Majors squad and going to a bowl game in 1997. Only to get blown out by Southern Miss, sure, but one of the best players on that team missed a lot of practice because he came to play school. He turned that into a modern program.
Pederson rebranding the athletic department... you hate it now, but that was probably necessary at that point. As a kid, I went from thinking Pitt had a crap logo and Penn State was where it's at to thinking Pitt looked awesome and when I saw that Pitt was actually playing in a real live bowl game I never looked back. Now look. I'm named ButtPilgrim and making documentaries about the team.
I think he also hired Ben Howland. This would be probably the 2nd best hire in the basketball program history, but the reason it's "probably" is because there's an argument for it being the 1st.
When he came back he was crappy, but yeah. Steve Pederson's first tenure.
If we're starting from 1990? After that, Heather Lyke. Then probably Jeff Long.
Pederson rebranding the athletic department... you hate it now, but that was probably necessary at that point. As a kid, I went from thinking Pitt had a crap logo and Penn State was where it's at to thinking Pitt looked awesome and when I saw that Pitt was actually playing in a real live bowl game I never looked back. Now look. I'm named ButtPilgrim and making documentaries about the team.
I think he also hired Ben Howland. This would be probably the 2nd best hire in the basketball program history, but the reason it's "probably" is because there's an argument for it being the 1st.
When he came back he was crappy, but yeah. Steve Pederson's first tenure.
If we're starting from 1990? After that, Heather Lyke. Then probably Jeff Long.
"Generating resources and support for Pitt Athletics has been a major priority for Lyke’s administration. Those efforts produced a record $75 million raised over the past three fiscal years. That total included a historic $20 million gift from 1997 alumnus Chris Bickell, the largest single donation in Pitt Athletics history. In addition to record-setting dollars raised, she has led exponential growth in membership in the Panther Club, reaching an all-time high of 15,761 last year, up from 8,856 during her first year at Pitt."
It was easily the worst thing he ever did. So bad, that 90% of the fan base couldn't wait to get rid of everything he changed.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
I don't think fans realize that there aren't alumni lined up around the corner to throw money at Pitt athletics. Hear lots of complaining but obviously people aren't opening their checkbooks. The bitterness over Victory Heights is also pretty dumb considering that Pitt has top ten programs running around the top of that hill.
dinocat 4 lyfe
tastes change and that was perfectly in line with the late 90s. we looked like crap for the time period and played like crap.
agree, but unfortunately the move to Acrisure is looking to be worse every year. For that alone not sure Steve P can be ranked that high but he did do a lot (along with Nordenberg) to save the program from the mess of J. Dennis & Oval Jaynes.
Do you know how much was raised in the preceding years? Of course it is skewed by the single largest athletic donation ever, hopefully she can continue to geta single donation $20,000,000 every three years ..... doubling Panther Club growth is impressive ....
That's interesting, because when I log into my account, my rank today is out of 10302 Panther Club members. And I can tell you that on 3-30-23, right before the re-park exercise, my ranking was out of 10196 (per the screenshot I took and still have).
They must be counting Panther Club members like attendance.
The doubling Panther Club growth is misleading. Football tickets require a PC membership. We played WVU and sold out of season tickets.
Yeah, it's all about measuring where the programs were when one took over to where they were when they left.
Harris/Howland elevated their respective programs to heights no other coaches have in my lifetimes.
Basketball went from a program where making the NIT was considered a resounding success to becoming a national powerhouse. We'll likely never see that again.
Football went from being one of the worst teams in a power conference to being a regular 7+ win team.
That's why these fools who act like Narduzzi is the best coach we've had don't know what the hell they're talking about. He took over a 6-win program and made it a 7-win program. Walt took over like 3/4-win program and left it an 8-win program.
Which is why SP1 was a great success. Yea, we didnt like the color and logo change but that doesn't matter 1/10 as much as what happens on the field. Maybe it was pure luck, who knows, but he completely resurrected the football and basketball programs.
The players convinced Nordy. Boehm was busy writing apps (the PAPER things). to other schools.
Correct. He, quite literally, reset the bar in both sports. Or at least the bar was reset in his tenure.
I mean, it's great that Heather Spike has elevated our volleyball program to elite status and all, but... not even a comparison between that and SP1.
Sonny Vaccaro got us Howland. SP = useless. Dinocat tattoo?
Do I have a Dinocat tattoo? No. But if I got a tattoo, that would be up there.
I mean...
Wow
I think Steve P was by the far the worst AD I have ever seen period... not just at Pitt. I would say he is by far the bottom feeder (OK, whatshisname that went to Oregon St Barnes? is probably worse). But Lyke is certainly the best Ive seen here in my life, I wasnt around for Cas, but SP ruined Pitt twice and Nebraska once... the only bright spot was hiring Howland, but I talked to Howland many times, and Howland did not like Stevie boy.
Chris talked on youtube about SP being booed and will HL be booed tomorrow. I say no way.... she is well liked, she has done fantastic... SP was a disaster. He took away the Pitt script! He demolished Pitt stadium! And he mishandled Wannstedt so poorly too. I know Beano gave him credit... but Beano was pretty much end of life at that time and liked everything.
There's the argument that Steve Pederson is how Pitt got into the ACC, but I've heard before that he just answered the phone.
He lobbied for him. SP didn't have to listen. You simply cannot compare SP1 with Lyke. Like I said, even if was pure luck, Walt & Howland totally changed the only 2 sports that matter. Before SP, we were the worst P6 team and the bball team was playing walk-ons because Ralph couldn't keep the team out of prison. To go from that to a Sweet 16 and Top 25 in hoops is just nuts.
In football, the program is probably in worse shape than when Lyke took over so I dont see how you can even compare.
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