Pitt, fans hope they will like Lyke
The University of Pittsburgh wants its new athletic director to live up to her name. So do its frustrated fans.
Heather Lyke was introduced Monday as the successor to Scott Barnes, who left to become AD at Oregon State University after less than two years in Oakland. Lyke will be the first woman to oversee Pitt’s athletic department, and she has a formidable job ahead. Lyke not only will be responsible for 19 men’s and women’s sports, she wants to raise the success levels of the football and men’s basketball programs – her department’s top revenue producers – in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
She has an impressive resume, especially related to on-field success and fund-raising. Lyke was Eastern Michigan University’s AD the past four years, during which the school produced 17 Mid-American Conference champions. The football team last fall qualified for a bowl game for the first time in 30 years.
Donations to the Eagles athletic department increased 51 percent during her time there. That included a $6 million cash gift early this year, the largest in EMU history.
Returning the Panthers football team to elite status will be difficult in the challenging ACC. Pitt was fabulously successful from 1976 through 1981, finishing 62-9-1 over those six seasons with one national title. But it hasn’t lost fewer than three games in a season since. And the team’s attendance for most home games at Heinz Field has been poor.
Boosting the program, and attendance, are large tasks facing Lyke. Keeping Pat Narduzzi may prove to be another. Narduzzi has done an admirable job in his two seasons as head coach, including victories last season over Penn State and Clemson, the eventual national champ. There is room for improvement, but if Narduzzi raises Pitt to the top tier, the AD will have to fend off suitors with large bucks from enticing her coach. Pitt also has to rebound from its first losing men’s basketball season since 1999-2000.
Lyke, a Canton, Ohio, native and former University of Michigan softball player, is one of only four women leading an entire athletic department at a major-conference university. Monday, she talked about winning ACC titles and national championships. She has lofty ambitions.
Pitt’s AD will officially start her new job Tuesday. The Panthers community hopes to like Lyke.