Fifty-seven days after Mark Coyle stepped down from his role as Syracuse’s director of athletics, shaking the SU community, Chancellor Kent Syverud named John Wildhack the university’s new director of athletics. Wildhack was named the new director of athletics Wednesday morning in a news release and will begin his new role in August.

Here are eight things to know about Wildhack.

Syracuse alumnus, Buffalo native

Wildhack attended Syracuse from 1976 to 1980, earning a bachelor of arts degree in telecommunications from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He sits on the advisory board for the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and was an honoree at the “Newhouse at 40” Gala. He grew up in Buffalo and graduated from Kenmore West (New York) High School. 

Company man

For 36 years, Wildhack worked in a variety of roles at ESPN. He began at ESPN in the network’s second year of business, 1980, as a production assistant. He rose to his current role, executive vice president of programming and production, after stints as associate producer, senior associate producer, producer, coordinating producer and director of event productions.

50,000 hours

As executive vice president of programming and production, Wildhack reports directly to ESPN President John Skipper. Wildhack has held his current role since 2014 and is responsible for 50,000 hours of content annually.

Milestone broadcasts

Wildhack helped produce the network’s first live regular season college football game in September 1984 (Brigham Young-Pittsburgh) and its first live NFL game in August 1987 (Chicago-Miami). BYU upset No. 3 Pittsburgh in the network’s first live football game, that year’s season opener. It was broadcast from Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

Contracts, contracts, contracts

Wildhack helped secure live television rights to the NBA and Southeastern Conference, among others, and negotiate several high-profile contracts. From 2007 to 2012, he oversaw all relationships with rights holders for the ESPN family of networks, from ESPN and ESPN2 to ESPN Deportes to ESPN Radio. In 2009, he pioneered a program planning all for ESPN television networks’ digital platforms.

Decisions, decisions

Wildhack has been associated with some of the biggest decisions ESPN has made in recent years. Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch wrote that the firing of Curt Schilling, who posted controversial material material on various social media sites, would not have been made without the approval of John Skipper and Wildhack. In addition, Wildhack attended a meeting with Skipper, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Steve Bornstein, then the president of the NFL Network, about Frontline’s documentary on concussions in the NFL and ESPN’s affiliation with Frontline, per the New York Times.

A variety of sports

As a producer, Wildhack worked on college football, NCAA basketball, boxing, golf and auto racing. He was a coordinating producer for ESPN’s “Sunday Night NFL” and NFL Draft broadcasts in 1988 and 1989.

Brother duo

John Wildhack’s older brother, Henry, joined the Syracuse athletic department in 2006 as a member of former Director of Athletics Daryl Gross’s senior management team. Henry Wildhack graduated from SU in 1975, majoring in business with a concentration in human resources and finance. From 2006 to 2011, Henry Wildhack worked in the SU athletic department as a liaison, program director, marketer, executive committee member and in special assignment roles with specific university athletic teams. He currently serves as president of Armory Capital Management, a financial consultancy in downtown Syracuse.

 

Published on July 6, 2016 at 1:12 pm

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21