Currie introduced at Kansas State

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Kirk Schulz and John Currie are both young for their new jobs, possess outgoing personalities and have no background whatsoever in Kansas.

And within a week of each other next month, Schulz will take over as president and Currie will become athletic director at Kansas State University.

“I don’t see any problems with that at all,” Schulz said on Monday. “I think it’s actually an advantage because we don’t know some things. What we’ll probably do is ask a lot of questions before making any decisions, which is a good thing.”

Currie, 38, was formally introduced on Monday as the replacement for Bob Krause. His hiring was the first major decision the 45-year-old Schulz has made since being chosen to replace the retiring Jon Wefald.

“I think we’ll do fine,” said Schulz, who was a vice president at Mississippi State.

In keeping with his pledge of having a transparent administration, Schulz had copies of Currie’s five-year contract available to the media. It calls for an annual base salary of $350,000 plus incentives.

“We are going to work every day to make sure our coaches and our student-athletes have the resources and the opportunity to be successful,” said Currie, who began his career at Wake Forest and spent the past 10 years serving in a variety of capacities at Tennessee.

Currie’s ability as a fundraiser was one of the skills that sold Schulz on the North Carolina native. He helped Tennessee land a $50 million contribution in 2006.

“I wanted to find someone with a superb background in fundraising, somebody with an outgoing personality who would be able to talk with fans in Western Kansas or Kansas City, someone with a great deal of experience in major college athletics,” Schulz said.

Kansas State is challenged to keep pace with richer Big 12 rivals such as Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State.

Currie’s fundraising abilities will be put to an immediate test because the Wildcats are in the middle of a $70 million facilities upgrade.

“I know in this economy, whether you want to call them customers or fans — and I prefer fans — you’d better take care of your customers right now,” he said.

He moves into his new office on June 8, a week before Schulz officially becomes president.

In another departure from how things have been done in the past, Schulz promised a hands-off approach to athletics. Wefald is credited by many with having helped save football at the school, and he frequently took a direct hand in major decisions involving athletics.

“One of my principles of leadership is to hire the best people and let them do their job to the best of their ability,” Schulz said.