 Ross Parmley |
Parmley served in the interim capaciaty since October 14, 2011, a day after Bubba Cunningham left TU to become the athletics director at the University of North Carolina.
Earlier in the fall of 2011, Parmley was named the Deputy Director of Athletics. Before that, he served as the Associate Athletics Director for Operations and Administration since June 2007. Parmley served as the Director of the Golden Hurricane Club in 2007 on an interim basis and that year the fundraising arm of athletics surpassed its goal of $1.7 million.
"With the rapidly changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics -- NCAA reform, conference realignment and television -- it became more important that permanent leadership of the department was needed," said President Upham at the press conference introducing Parmley as the director of athletics. "Over the past several years, Ross has handled positions with increasing levels of responsibility and has demonstrated his ability as a leader and administrator. After watching Ross the past few months as interim athletics director it was an obvious decision to name him our Director of Athletics."
"Heather and I are obviously very excited about this opportunity and appreciative of President Upham and the Board of Trustees for their trust and confidence in my abilities to lead our athletic department. It's a privilege to be in the role as athletics director at one of the countries leading institutions of higher education," said Parmley at his introductory news conference.
"With the recent success that our athletic programs have enjoyed it's obvious that we have a strong foundation to reach even greater success in the future," Parmley added. "We'll continue to compete for conference and national championships, educate and graduate our student-athletes, compete to be a leader in community service, provide our student-athletes with the ultimate collegiate experience, compete for fans in this community and work to be the most NCAA compliant department among our peers."
During his tenure, Parmley has been responsible for the supervision of the athletic business office, ticket office, equipment staff and game day operations as well as overseeing the development and supervision of the annual athletic department budget. He has had sport supervision for tennis and golf and served as the lead person for the planning and coordination of the TU golf practice facility at Patriot Golf Course. Parmley has been responsible for revising TU's athletic department policies and procedures. He has also worked closely with the Academic Services staff on the successful pursuit of maintaining APR above NCAA guidelines.
Parmley served as the tournament director for the 2008 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships and several Conference USA Championships, as well as serving as tournament manager for the 2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament, 2nd and 3rd Rounds at the BOK Center.
In addition, Parmley was involved in developing the fundraising plan for athletic department needs for the TU Capital Campaign in 2007, including the development of a scholarship committee, coaching endowment and H.A. Chapman Stadium.
Parmley moved into the athletics administrative role after two seasons in the football department. He was the Director of Football Operations in 2005 and served as the assistant athletic director for football operations in 2006.
Before coming to Tulsa, Parmley spent two-and-a-half years as the Director of Athletics for the Norman Public Schools. He supervised more than 65 athletic programs and 200 coaching positions in the Norman School District. Two years prior to that, Parmley served as a teacher, coach and athletic coordinator at Norman High School.
Parmley, 38 (born July 29, 1973), is a native of Lawton, Oklahoma. He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Cameron University, and he received his master's degree in sports management from the University of Oklahoma.
He and his wife, Heather, have two children: daughter, Jordyn Kate and son, Blake.
