By Russ Brown
Kentucky Today
The University of Louisville has chosen a successful businessman with strong ties to both UofL and the University of Kentucky as its interim replacement for suspended athletics director Tom Jurich.
He is Vince Tyra, 51, a former UK baseball player, the son of Cardinals basketball legend Charlie Tyra and part-owner of the local professional soccer team.
The action was announced by UofL interim president Greg Postel during a press conference at the school Tuesday afternoon.
“People ask how I can be OK with a UK grad as an athletics director,” Postel said. “I tell them my wife is a UK grad.”
Vince Tyra
Tyra doesn’t have an easy job, filling in for one of the most popular athletic personalities in Louisville while UofL is dealing with an FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball and a certain NCAA probe while still facing sanctions from the NCAA for the basketball program’s sex parties scandal.
But Tyra’s most pressing duties will be helping interim basketball coach David Padgett fill his staff and determining the status of assistants Jordan Fair and Kenny Johnson, who could possibly be incriminated in the FBI sting.
“I’m confident,” Postel said, “that Vince will have the ability to work with me, our coaches, our athletic staff and our athletes to promote stability, to promote confidence in our programs and to ensure the success of our athletic endeavors.”
During the press conference, Tyra said he’s excited to continue “what Tom has created” and offered high praise for Jurich.
“It is one of the elite programs in the country,” he said. “We may have an issue to deal with today, but this is an elite program with terrific coaches.
“Tom and I aren’t the same people, but we have similar philosophies and the same passion for the university. Tom has been an incredible steward for a long time. People know how I feel about Tom and what he has accomplished here.”
Asked about Jurich’s possible return, Tyra dodged the question, saying it was not his decision. Jurich, who has spent 20 years as UofL’s AD, could still be returned to his job, depending on a decision by the school’s board of trustees.
“I’m just taking it as I’m filling the role for now until we find out what the long-term fix is,” Tyra said.
Tyra said he will meet immediately with UofL’s coaches, and mentioned Padgett and the Cards’ basketball team specifically.
“We have an amazing group of athletes on this team,” Tyra said. “It’s been a difficult week. The basketball team may have a flat tire, but we’re going to pump it back up. It’s time for our fan base to dig in deeper and be more supportive in any way they can. This is not the time to break away.”
Tyra is a member of the UofL Foundation board and the operating partner of Southfield Capital, a Connecticut-based private equity firm. He said he will resign from the Foundation board. He holds a bachelor’s degree in health administration from UK, where he was a four-year member of the baseball team.
Tyra’s LinkedIn page lists a business career stretching over 20 years. He says he is currently chairman of the board of Elite Medical Staffing, a Florida-based medical recruiting firm; a corporate adviser for ISCO Industries, a Louisville-based company that sells piping equipment; and board director of Industrial Services of America, a publicly traded metal recycling business.
He is also a member of the Skyball investment group, which owns a piece of Louisville City FC, the city’s United Soccer League professional team.
Tyra’s father, Charlie Tyra, was the UofL basketball team’s first All-American and the school’s all-time leading rebounder. His No. 8 is one of four jerseys retired by the school — the others are Wes Unseld, Darrell Griffith and Pervis Ellison. Charlie died in 2006 at age 71, two years after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
Tyra graduated in 1984 from Trinity High School, where he compiled a 17-2 record and 1.95 ERA in four years as a pitcher in addition to a .329 batting average. He was Trinity’s most valuable player in basketball and baseball his senior year.
Family ties
At least until the uncertainty about assistant coaches is settled, Padgett has called on his father, Pete, a coach for almost 40 years in the Reno, Nevada, area, to serve as an informal adviser.
Pete Padgett, a former basketball star at the University of Nevada, coached at Carson City High and Reno High and spent one season as an assistant coach at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
”When you all of a sudden get into the position he’s in, the first time you go through it, it can be overwhelming,” Pete Padgett told The Courier-Journal. “We came back here to support our son and lend whatever help we can, whatever I can do from a basketball standpoint. I’m here for him to bounce some things off of: ‘What do you think about this,’ or, ‘What did you see when you came to practice and sat up there and watched?’ You don’t want to overwhelm him with too much, but if something comes along where I think I can help, I’ll say something.”
Pete also said his son has been contacted by “large numbers” of people with interest in joining his staff or with recommendations for others to join his staff.
Russ Brown, a former sportswriter for The Courier-Journal and USA Today, covers University of Louisville sports for Kentucky Today. He can be reached at 0926.russ.brown@gmail.com.
