UCSB Athletic Director Mark Massari Leaving for OSU

Mark Massari, UCSB’s director of athletics (August 2008)

Mark Massari, UCSB’s director of athletics for the past six years, will depart at the end of July to accept a position at Oregon State University (OSU), it was announced today. Massari will be deputy director of athletics at OSU, where he had been an athletic administrator before coming to Santa Barbara.

Massari, 45, pursued several ambitious initiatives at UCSB, including the “Dare to Be Great” campaign directed at current and former Gaucho athletes, and the Gaucho Fund, which increased the number of donors to the athletic program.

UCSB’s intercollegiate athletes had an 85 percent graduation rate during Massari’s tenure, second highest in the UC system. In competition, seven Gaucho teams made 20 different postseason appearances in the past six years. Massari hired two new head coaches — Andrew Checketts (baseball), Carlene Mitchell (women’s basketball) — who led UCSB into NCAA tournaments.

Gary Cunningham will serve as interim director of athletics beginning August 1 as a national search is conducted for Massari’s replacement. Cunningham had retired from the UCSB position in 2008 when he was succeeded by Massari.