Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Fry in spotlight as leader of group

Back in his college days, Joseph "Andy" Fry was a pretty fair basketball player.

"I started for four years," said Fry, a distinguished history professor at UNLV who will chair the screening committee for John Robinson's replacement as athletic director. "I played point guard."

So he was the Marcus Banks of his generation?

"Oh no, I wasn't at that level of competition," Fry chuckled. "We played in the NAIA."

Fry attended Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va., about a three-hour drive south of Pittsburgh. The Senators have since moved up to NCAA Division II.

Fry, meanwhile, will begin his 28th year on UNLV's faculty in the fall after putting together a impressive academic resume that includes master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Virginia, a recent promotion to distinguished professor status at UNLV and the publishing of three books with two more on the way.

He also has served on various academic committees at the school and was President Dr. Carol C. Harter's executive assistant her first three years on campus. But it is his latest assignment -- point man of the athletic director screening committee -- that probably will put this Green Valley resident in the spotlight for the first time.

"I hadn't been expecting it," Fry said. "But when President Harter asked me, I was happy to do it. I've been at this university for a long time and I care for it a great deal."

Fry first started at UNLV in 1975.

"Back then I think we had 11 professors in the history department," he said. "Now we have 22. The student body was probably around 7,500 compared to the 25,000 we have now. And obviously the physical plant of the campus has grown tremendously."

This isn't the first time Fry has served on an athletic director screening committee. He also was a member of the panel that helped picked Brad Rothermel in 1981.

"I think this hiring will be a bit different than that one because my understanding is Dr. Harter is using a search firm (Bond, Schoeneck & King Collegiate Sports Services in Overland Park, Kan.) to narrow the group," Fry said. "That seems like a good idea to me.

"I haven't had an opportunity to sit down with the president yet and probably won't be able to until mid-June. We're in the process of putting the search committee together. My guess is we probably won't get around to interviewing candidates until the middle of July sometime."

Fry said he wasn't sure how many candidates would ultimately make the first cut. And although Harter said she'd like to have a new AD hired by the start of football season, Fry said that remains to be seen.

"I know the president said she'd like to have a new athletic director by the fall," Fry said. "That would be great if we could find someone out there in that time frame. But a lot of it really depends on everybody's schedule -- how quickly we can get (the candidates) to the campus, show them around the city and get them with the large number of people they'll need to talk with.

"When we interview someone for an assistant professor position, they usually spend several days here. I would think that would apply to this job, too."

For Fry, only the 13th UNLV faculty member to receive the distinguished professor status, it figures to be a busy summer. He also is working on two books. The first is a comparison of the Fulbright Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings in 1966 opposing the war in Vietnam and the Stennis Senate Armed Services Preparedness Subcomittee hearings of 1967 supporting a more vigorous prosecution of the war. The second is a study of the American South and the Vietnam War.

Compared to that, helping to select a new athletic director figures to be a breeze.

"I am excited about this," Fry said. "Obviously I believe this is a very important appointment and a difficult job. It's going to be challenging."

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