Cleveland State Announces 3-Year Extension for Parry

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State University Director of Athletics John Parry has received a three-year contract extension that will run through June of 2017, which was approved by the University Board of Trustees on Tuesday.

A veteran of intercollegiate athletics, including 18 years in the Horizon League, Parry arrived at CSU in May of 2010 as the Interim Director of Athletics. The interim tag was removed in April of 2011.

With Parry at the helm, CSU won its second McCafferty Trophy, the Horizon League All Sports award, in 2012-13 as the Vikings won four league titles and had two runner-up finishes. CSU also captured the Men's All Sports Trophy in the same year.

In October, Parry was named to represent the Horizon League on the NCAA Division I Leadership Council through June of 2016. The council serves as an advisory body to the NCAA Division I Board of Directors.

CSU has continued to enhance the academic performance of student-athletes under Parry as 11 of CSU's 16 teams had Graduation Success Rates of 80 or higher, while eight of the team's were higher than the national average of 82 in the latest reports. In addition, eight teams received Academic Progress Rate (APR) recognition from the NCAA in May for finishing among the top-10 percent of their respective sport based on the most recent multi-year APR.

A native of Marcellus, N.Y., Parry attended Brown University where he was a two-time All-Ivy League receiver and co-captain of the football team while also earning varsity letters in basketball and lacrosse.

Parry earned a B.A. in economics from Brown, and a master's in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. After earning his degrees, Parry spent eight years in business with IBM and then as co-founder of Instant Data Inc., in Philadelphia. He completed football and lacrosse coaching stints at Brown while working as the assistant athletic director (1975-79).

Parry was named Director of Athletics at Brown in 1979, a position he held for 11 years until leaving for Butler in 1990 where he served as the Director of Athletics until 2006.

Release courtesy of CSU Athletics Media Relations