Dave O'Brien (athletic director)

David P. O'Brien (March 16, 1956 – March 1, 2014) was an American collegiate athletic director at Long Beach State College in Long Beach, California, Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He was also an associate teaching professor and program director of sports management at Drexel University, an editor of College Sports Business News[1] and managing partner of O'Brien Sports Group.[2]

O'Brien was athletic director at Long Beach State from 1989 to 1996 and oversaw two major moves: cutting the football program in 1991 and building the Walter Pyramid, the basketball arena which opened in 1994.[3]

During O'Brien's tenure at Temple (1996–2002), the Temple Owls' men's basketball team went 135–65 and made it to the NCAA Basketball Tournament in five of six seasons under head coach John Chaney. The team advanced to the Elite Eight in 1999 and 2001. The football team struggled and was voted out of the Big East Conference shortly before O'Brien resigned from Temple in January 2002.[4]

At Northeastern from 2002 to 2007, O'Brien was responsible for hiring current men's basketball coach Bill Coen, women's basketball coach Daynia La-Force,[5] former football coach Rocky Hager and former men's ice hockey coach Greg Cronin.[6] The school announced a move from the America East Conference to the Colonial Athletic Association in 2004.[7] After O'Brien left Northeastern in 2007, the school cut the football team following the 2009 season.[8]

O'Brien was a graduate of Moravian College and Seton Hall Law School.[9]

O'Brien died on March 1, 2014, at the age of 57 at his home in Lower Gwynedd Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, of cancer.[10]

References
  1. "College Sports Business News - The Publication for College Sports Administrators". collegesportsbusinessnews.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-08. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  2. "O'Brien Sports Group | David P. O'Brien J.D. & Timothy J. O'Brien J.D." Archived from the original on 2013-01-31. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  3. "LONG BEACH STATE NOTEBOOK / JASON REID : Pyramid's Success May Help Football Return to the Field". Los Angeles Times. 28 September 1995.
  4. "O'Brien stepping down as Temple athletic director No quarrel was apparent, but the Owls' AD had been a supporter of big-time football at the school". philly-archives.
  5. "Northeastern basketball nets pair". boston.com.
  6. "Cronin Introduced at Northeastern". USCHO.com.
  7. "USATODAY.com - Northeastern agrees to join Colonial Athletic Association". usatoday.com.
  8. "Northeastern cuts 74-year-old football program". ESPN.com. 23 November 2009.
  9. "Goodwin College of Professional Studies - Goodwin College of Professional Studies - Drexel University". Goodwin College of Professional Studies. Archived from the original on 2012-12-10. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  10. "David O'Brien, college sports chief - philly-archives". Articles.philly.com. 2013-07-21. Retrieved 2015-08-06.
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