Winthrop athletic director leaving for new job at Power 5 school. Here’s what we know
The Winthrop athletic director job is now up for grabs.
Ken Halpin — who served as athletic director at the Rock Hill university since May 2016, succeeding Tom Hickman — is leaving for a Big Ten athletics administration job, a source within the Eagles’ athletic department told The Herald.
CollegeAD reported Tuesday that Halpin is heading to West Lafayette to become Purdue’s new deputy athletics director and chief operation officer.
Halpin earned $155,287 in annual compensation from Winthrop, according to the South Carolina Department of Administration.
Halpin, Winthrop athletic milestones
The Winthrop athletic department celebrated several successes on Halpin’s watch. Among them: four Big South Championship tournament men’s basketball titles (2017, 2019, 2020, 2021); two women’s tennis conference championships; one volleyball conference championship; and three baseball regular season conference titles.
He also made several hires in his tenure — none more anticipated than men’s basketball coach Mark Prosser, who he hired in April after former coach Pat Kelsey left for College of Charleston. He also appointed women’s basketball coach Semeka Randall Lay this spring, women’s lacrosse coach Julika Blankenship in 2016, softball coach Windy Thees in 2018, women’s tennis coach Vivian Segnini in 2019, women’s golf coach Kasey Gambrell in 2019 and volleyball coach Chuck Rey in 2018.
Another noteworthy milestone for Winthrop athletics under Halpin was the implementation of the Eagles’ esports program. In the fall of 2019, Winthrop became only the third NCAA Division I school — joining Marquette University and Wagner College — to have an esports team as part of its athletics department. (The program’s League of Legends team won a national championship in June.)
Halpin was also at the helm when the men’s and women’s tennis programs were discontinued at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cut was one of a constellation of reductions the university made, Winthrop officials explained, in preparation for a “fiscally tight” year post-pandemic.
Halpin also served on the NCAA Division I Council, a group that procures and debates legislation for the NCAA Executive Committee to implement, and saw “record revenue growth,” per Winthrop’s website, after restructuring the athletic department’s fundraising model shortly after his appointment as Winthrop AD.
Where is Ken Halpin from?
Halpin graduated from Willamette University in 2005, where he was an all-conference baseball and football player.
He would then go on to receive a Masters in sports administration from Gonzaga and then a Ph.D. in education from Washington State University before joining Eastern Washington University as deputy athletics director.
At Winthrop, he also briefly taught “History and Current Issues of College Athletics,” a course unique to Winthrop.
Winthrop fans, alumni react to Halpin move
Fans took to social media to react to Halpin’s career move Tuesday. Most shared a similar sentiment: The Halpin news is unsurprising because of his merits and ambition — but Winthrop has big shoes to fill.
This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 6:33 PM.
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