Manuel Earns National Recognition On "Forty Under 40" List

Buffalo Athletics Director saluted for his work by Sports Business Journal

Warde Manuel

BUFFALO, NY - University at Buffalo Director of Athletics Warde J. Manuel was honored in today’s Street and Smith Sports Business Journal among the national "Forty Under 40" award winners -- a designation reserved for the best and brightest executives in the sports business industry under the age of 40.

With the honor, Manuel becomes just the fifth college administrator to earn the designation in a pool of 232 honorees over the nine years that the magazine has compiled the list. Manuel, who is in his third year as director of athletics at UB, joins Damon Evans (Georgia AD), Jamie Pollard (Iowa State AD), Bernard Muir (Georgetown AD) and Greg Shaheen (Senior VP of the NCAA) as college administrators who have been selected. The selection also gives UB athletics an unprecedented pairing, as Senior Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator Anucha Browne-Sanders was honored in 2002, while with the New York Knicks. Among other Western New Yorkers, only Buffalo Bills’ Chief Operating Officer Russ Brandon (honored in 2001) has made the list.

This year’s class of honorees features 25 newcomers to the list. Manuel joins the group after leading the Bulls’ athletics program to several national honors, while also earning the same designation locally after being chosen by Business First of Buffalo last fall as a Buffalo Forty Under 40 winner.

“I am truly honored and humbled to receive this recognition, particularly when I view the current and past list of previous winners and see the impact they have had in the sports industry.” said Manuel, who will join the 2008 class in Beverly Hills, Calif., to receive his award on March 14. “While I accept this award on behalf of UB, I also accept it on behalf of our truly outstanding staff, coaches, and studentathletes that I work with every day in the Division of Athletics.

“President John Simpson has given us the opportunity to earn success on the competitive fields of play of Division I athletics and this award is a by-product of his commitment, in the hands of professionals that are working extremely hard to put Buffalo’s athletics programs on the national landscape,” said Manuel. “I continue to be excited about the future of UB’s athletics programs within the scope of President Simpson’s tremendous vision for our University with UB 2020.”

Praising Manuel for earning the honor and, in turn, bringing recognition to the university, President John B. Simpson noted: “This is a great, and well-deserved, achievement for Warde. Since his arrival at UB, Warde has embodied the best of our approach to excellence in all we do.

“When it comes to our scholar-athletes, and the entire UB athletics team, Warde sets his expectations high -- in the classroom and on the field -- and then finds creative ways to help people achieve them,” Simpson added. “This honor is a reflection of that hard work and integrity.” Since Manuel’s arrival on campus in August 2005, the athletics department has accomplished some impressive and historic achievements under his leadership:
• Manuel’s increased focus on academics since arriving on campus has resulted in creation of a new study center, quadrupling the investment in tutorial support and doubling the number of computers available to student-athletes. In Fall 2007, UB achieved the highest average cumulative GPA since 2004 and the second highest since joining the MAC in 1999. In addition, the football team posted its best GPA in the fall of ‘07, the highest in its Division I-A history.
• The 2007 Bulls’ football program had its best year since moving up to the Division I-A level and joining the Mid-American Conference in 1999, winning five league games and gaining a share of the Mid-American Conference East Division title for the first time in school history.
• In Fall 2007, the Athletics Department was recognized by the NCAA Division I-A Athletic Directors as a Program of Excellence, the only school in the nation to receive that designation for 2006- 07.
• In June 2007, Manuel accepted the Opportunity Award from all-time tennis great Billie Jean- King as UB was recognized by the Women’s Sports Foundation as one of four “standout” colleges and universities in the nation for outstanding achievement in providing equitable athletics opportunities for its female student-athletes.
• The women’s tennis team reached the MAC Championship in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
• The baseball team completed its most successful Mid-American Conference season in school history in 2007.
• The Bulls’ men’s soccer team has earned Top 20 designation and twice advanced to the MAC Championship since Manuel’s arrival.
• The women’s rowing squad finished their best season with a second-place finish at the ECAC Metro Championships in 2006 and followed with a second place finish in 2007. They have also captured a pair of championships at the prestigious Dad Vail Championships in Philadelphia.

Shortly after his arrival on campus, Manuel made national waves by hiring Turner Gill, a former Heisman Trophy candidate and nationally-respected former assistant coach at Nebraska, as Buffalo’s 23rd head football coach in December of 2005. At the time of his hiring, Gill was one of just five African- American head football coaches in Division I-A. Gill’s hiring would lead to a cover story in USA Today on Buffalo’s leading position nationally on minority hiring. Shortly after, the Division of Athletics was recognized by the Laboratory for Diversity in Sport at Texas A&M University in its annual Diversity Athletics Awards not only for the athletics department’s racial diversity, but also its gender equity. Buffalo was recognized for Overall Excellence in Diversity, Title IX Compliance and Employee Gender Diversity. UB was recognized again in 2007.

When Manuel arrived on campus he focused on building a model of fiscal accountability -- by using a zero-based budgeting methodology -- that provided each area with the resources that were needed to be successful. Since his arrival, Manuel has effectively balanced a budget that has increased by nearly $4 million dollars while increasing corporate sponsorships by 40 percent.

Under Manuel’s leadership, two of the department’s five largest financial gifts were secured. A $500,000 gift from Robert G. and Carol L. Morris allowed Buffalo to double its current weight room space with the addition of a sports performance center adjacent to UB Stadium. In addition, he secured a $640,000 gift from Dr. Harold Ortman that will benefit the men’s and women’s tennis programs. Concurrently, his focus on providing coaches and student-athletes with the resources needed to compete for championships led to the hiring of the nationally renowned architectural firm HNTB to design a stateof- the-art multi-use fieldhouse that will benefit not only all of UB’s athletics programs, but the university and Western New York community as a whole.

Manuel was named UB’s director of athletics on July 22, 2005, after serving as an associate athletic director at the University of Michigan where he oversaw the football and men’s basketball programs. His appointment came just eight weeks after former NCAA President Gene Corrigan issued a report commissioned by UB President John B. Simpson that identified the hiring of a top-flight athletics director as a key factor to UB’s athletics teams being successful in the Mid-American Conference.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system that is its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB’s more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.

03/03/2008