The Maryland Terps won its first game of the season against Navy Sunday night, but that won’t be the only time this season that Maryland will have to deal with the military.
According to umterps.com, former United States Military Academy Athletic Director Kevin Anderson was named to the same position with the University of Maryland, College Park. Anderson directed the Army’s athletics department from 2004-2010, overseeing a 25-sport program that rosters more than 900 Army cadet-athletes.
Anderson, the first every African American to hold the AD title at Army, also helped manage a budget of $25 million and turned a $1 million operating deficit into a $2.73 million surplus in just five years on the job. He also helped negotiate a five-year, $55 million deal with CBS to televise the annual Army-Navy game, while also inking a deal that will bring college football to Yankee Stadium, starting this season with an Army-Notre Dame faceoff. Overall, Anderson has more than two decades of sports leadership experience, including stints at Oregon State University and University of California-Berkley. He graduated from San Francisco State in 1979 with a degree in political science.
“We conducted an extensive national search which was rigorous and insightful…and, in the final hour, Dr. Loh and I were in complete agreement that Kevin was the best person to lead Maryland Athletics,” said Maryland’s Acting President Nariman Farvardin.
Anderson will replace Deborah A. Yow, who led Maryland athletics for 16 years. Yow left Maryland this summer to assume the AD position at North Carolina State University. Maryland is confident Anderson will do a fine job replacing her.
“Kevin has built a solid program of competitive and academic success at the U.S. Military Academy, supporting the student-athlete and demonstrating that academics and athletics can go hand in hand,” Dr. Loh stated via the school’s athletics website. “I am convinced that his leadership will raise Maryland Athletics to even greater heights. We are delighted to welcome Kevin into the Terrapin family.”