FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 29, 2000 CONTACT: Mike Mahon, (515) 271-3014 BLANK NAMED DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS AT DRAKE UNIVERSITY Dave Blank, director of athletics at Coastal Carolina University, has been named athletic director at Drake University, President David Maxwell announced today. Blank, 40, succeeds Lynn King, who resigned March 1 to accept a similar position at the University of The Pacific. Blank's appointment, which is effective Aug. 1, culminated a national search that included more than 60 applicants for the position. "I am delighted that we have been able to appoint Dave Blank as the next athletic director at Drake," said President Maxwell. "A highly accomplished student-athlete himself, he is the perfect person to guide and represent an athletics program that has been an integral part of Drake University's fiber for over a century; it is a defining characteristic of what we do and who we are as an institution. We are one of those few institutions that has been able to mount a nationally competitive athletic program with students who are equally talented intellectually and academically. "Dave has the background, the knowledge and the commitment to lead a program characterized by excellence, integrity and honesty, and by an unwavering commitment to our athletes' success not only on the courts and fields, but most of all as students and members of the community. He fully understands the immense contribution that our student-athletes make to the University, and the special role that an athletic program can and does play in the academic mission of the institution." A native of Frostburg, Md., Blank has just completed his first year as athletic director at Coastal Carolina, which fields 16 intercollegiate sports programs while competing in the Big South Conference. Under Blank's leadership, Coastal Carolina finished second in the Big South All-Sports Championship during the 1999-2000 athletic season, capturing league titles in men's golf and women's softball while eight other teams (men's cross country, women's cross country, women's basketball, women's indoor track, women's outdoor track, men's outdoor track, women's golf, women's tennis) finished second in their respective conference championships. Chris Malinky, a soccer goalkeeper, and track standout Jolene Williams also were named respective Men's and Women's Scholar Athletes of the Year in the Big South Conference. Blank also was instrumental in the CINO Club, which is the fundraising arm for Coastal Carolina, growing in both record numbers and money pledged in support of the Chanticleers. He directed efforts to raise $6 million to implement football as an intercollegiate sport competing at the NCAA I-AA level starting in the fall of 2003. "I am very grateful to President Maxwell and the selection committee for this opportunity," said Blank. "I firmly believe that under the guidance of President Maxwell, the commitment and support to Drake athletics at the NCAA Division I level, are very strong and that success is right around the corner. "I am very excited about the opportunity to lead the athletic department at Drake University and I am anxious to begin work with the administration, the athletic staff, the coaches and the community to elevate Drake University to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference. "I am particularly pleased to begin the guidance of an athletic department that continues to maintain the co-existence of academic and athletic standards, " Blank added. "Drake has a good balance between academic and athletics and everyone at Drake is committed to supporting that philosophy." Blank joined the Coastal Carolina staff in October of 1996 as assistant director of athletics for development and marketing and was named associate director of athletics for development and administration in January, 1999. He has also served as the executive director of the CINO Club. "The committee believes and the president concurs that David Blank is exactly the right person for Drake and that Drake is an ideal fit for him," said Mike Marty, chairman of the search committee. "His experience in athletics administration, his background in coaching and his success in building support for his institutions in the communities that he has served bodes well for Drake. We look forward to his arrival and to the benefits his leadership will bring to Drake and Des Moines." Blank was recruited to Duke University on a basketball scholarship. A knee injury ended his playing career. He transferred to the University of South Carolina where he received a bachelor of science degree in business administration with concentration in finance in 1982. He earned a master's degree in business administration from South Carolina in 1986. He began a successful coaching career in basketball as an assistant under Bill Foster at South Carolina from 1980-85. He also has served as assistant director of athletics and assistant basketball coach at Wofford (S.C.) College in 1985-86. He became head basketball coach at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania in 1988 where he became the winningest coach in school history with 119 victories in eight seasons. Blank was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Coach of the year in 1989 and 1996, guiding the team to the 1989 NCAA Division II tournament. Blank and his wife, Leslie, are the parents of four children -- Dexter, five years old; Samantha, four; Dustin, 19 months; and Davis, who was born June 7.