ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606180017
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Michael O'Brien became the second of five finalists to visit the Radford University campus to discuss the school's vacant athletic director's job.
O'Brien, the athletic director at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, was in Radford on Thursday and Friday to go through pretty much the same circuit of city/campus tours, interviews and meetings that fellow candidate Judy Southard did earlier in the week.
``This is the first time I've been here and I'll tell you, this institution is impressive,'' O'Brien said.
O'Brien has been athletic director at Lamar since 1993. Before that, he was director of development for athletics at the University of Pittsburgh.
O'Brien worked his way up by being willing to relocate. Lamar makes the eighth college for which he has worked since leaving teaching and coaching in Carrollton, Mo., in 1977.
``I've done some telephone calling on my own looking into the job here in Radford,'' O'Brien said. ``The people I've talked to have been very impressed with Radford. They think this is a very doable situation here.''
Another motivation for looking into the Radford situation was the possibility it presented of being able to move back to the East, O'Brien said.
The next job-seeker will be Moorhead (Minn.) State athletic director Katy Wilson, who will be arriving Wednesday and staying through June 21. She will be followed by Steve Nelson, an associate AD at Clemson who will visit June 23-25.
Greig Denny, an associate AD at Radford, will have the last round of interviews June 25-26.
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