STILLWATER – It took about 10 minutes on Thursday morning after the announcement for the question to be asked. A regular caller on my radio show asked, “Robert, just who is Chad Weiberg?”
Good reason to ask that question because the Oklahoma State University Board of Regents on Friday, March 5, 2021 in their regularly scheduled meeting inside the Student Union on the Oklahoma State campus will vote to make Chad Weiberg the new athletic director at Oklahoma State University.
Before explaining just who Chad Weiberg is, it is important to explain how we got to this point. Mike Holder has done a fantastic job of serving as athletic director. Holder’s ability to communicate and convince fellow alumni like Boone Pickers, Sherman Smith, Michael and Anne Greenwood, and Cecil O’Brate to donate huge sums of money and put their names and reputations on game changing facilities at Oklahoma State has been amazing. While Holder excelled in that area his people skills in other areas were not as engaging. His decision making relied more on his opinion than taking in the thoughts and experience of his staff. Many of those decisions were right, but many weren’t as spot on.
Now, with new leadership coming in the form of a new President of the University and Mike Holder’s contract coming up in the summer, there were many involved in the leadership at OSU that felt the time was right to promote the man many had felt would be the next athletic director when they brought him back to Stillwater several years ago with the title of deputy athletic director. Honestly, they were afraid that another school, likely a Big 12 school would hire him first.
Weiberg came home May of 2017, returning to Oklahoma State where he graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. He would later earn a Master’s in Business Administration from Oklahoma State in 2004. In between he was the person that came in and directed corporate sales and donor relations for the athletic department. He was the predecessor to Larry Reece. He did such a good job that the Oklahoma State Alumni Association grabbed him and made his senior director of field operations for their fund raising. The OSU Foundation then drafted him as their director of development for the College of Business Administration. As he was finishing his Master’s at OSU he moved back into being the chief fund raiser for athletics. I get the feeling that then head basketball coach Eddie Sutton had pushed for that.
Oklahoma State Athletics
The Memorial inside Gallagher-Iba Arena has strong meaning to Chad as his brother, Jared is one of the Ten.
It is the time between 2004 and when he returned in 2017 that is important as far as the experience he obtained. Before leaving, Chad Weiberg said good-bye to his brother. For folks that don’t know Chad as well, you may have heard the name Jared Weiberg. Chad’s brother with whom they shared the love of Oklahoma State and sports had been a walk-on basketball player that stuck with the hoops program. Jared was a favorite of Eddie Sutton’s and was named a student assistant coach and was being groomed for a career in college basketball and maybe even in the NBA in either coaching or administration. Jared was one of the 10 men lost in that terrible plane crash in 2001 on the way back from a road trip at Colorado. Despite losing his brother, Chad didn’t lose his love for their school. The Weiberg tradition at Oklahoma State actually goes back to their father, Mick, who was once an assistant coach on Paul Hansen’s Oklahoma State basketball staff.
Chad went to Kansas State University where he eventually headed up the major gifts for Kansas State athletics and worked side-by-side with K-State football coaching great Bill Snyder. I had spoke several times with Coach Snyder about Weiberg and Coach had talked glowingly about his work ethic, his ability to establish relationships, and his ability to communicate a message. Weiberg was recognized at Kansas State as the National Fundraiser of the Year by the National Association of Athletic Development Directors in 2014.
From Kansas State, Weiberg went to Texas Tech where he served under another person I’ve come to admire in athletics. Kirby Hocutt is a former K-State football player that has become an excellent athletic director. Weiberg was his deputy athletic director and was involved in all facets of the department. You could call it a grooming for what he will do at Oklahoma State. With Hocutt, serving as the chairperson of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, there were times that Weiberg was running the athletic department at Tech. He also got a window into seeing what being on one of those elite and powerful committees can bring to a school when they have their leader serving.
Oklahoma State Athletics
Chad Weitberg is strong as a relationship builder.
Back at Oklahoma State, Weiberg has been the deputy to Mike Holder and has been a sport administrator and liaison for football and men’s basketball. He has done a brilliant job in taking over football scheduling and establishing new series with Oregon State, expanded the Tulsa series, and future series with Oregon, Arizona State, Arkansas, and Nebraska.
Chad Weiberg will tell you his main job is as father to Ella and Grant and husband to Jodi. He’s right and his priorities are in the right place.
My opinion is that Chad will be a little more methodical. Watching him operate reminds me of the U.S. Navy SEALs saying of “You plan your dive and you dive your plan.” I like that attention to detail and I also like that inclusion of the expertise and experience that you have in your department. I see Weiberg being more of an inclusion leader than exclusion. I think coaches on staff will find a supporter that will work within reason to get their sports, staffs, and most important, their athletes the tools and support needed for success.
Weiberg is a lot of old school with new school methods that he has learned and cultivated with his fellow athletic department administrators. The inclusion that I talked about, and I think that will foster more of a team morale within the administration to go along with the team morale needed on the field, court, or diamond.
Finally, I’ve been asked if Chad, who seems such a nice guy, generally smiling, although we caught him in a picture with an intense stare, was capable of the tough hard decision. I have no doubt. I’ve stretched him a few times on questions that got that stare. He will make tough decisions. He will make them as needed. He will fully research them before he makes them.
I believe he will do a really good job.
