Josh Heird

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The University of Louisville on Monday named Josh Heird as interim athletics director. Heird was named deputy athletics director in April 2019 but had a long history with the university before that. He is steeped in all aspects of the athletics program, particularly fund-raising, budget, facilities and operations.

He takes the job after the resignation of Vince Tyra, who spent just over four years in the position but resigned last Friday to pursue the athletics director job at Florida State, a job he wound up not taking.

Heird served as a right-hand man to Tyra over the past two years and should provide continuity for the department during this time of transition. A national search for Tyra's successor will begin soon.

Five things to know about the school's interim AD:

  1. IT'S PRONOUNCED "HERD": Though it's spelled differently, his last name isn't complicated. As in, "I heard he was just named interim athletics director."
  2. HE RAN CROSS COUNTRY: Heird is a 2002 graduate of Mississippi College, where he was a member of the cross country, track & field and football teams. In addition to being the American Southwest Conference 800-meter champion in 2001, Heird was an all-conference cross country selection in 2001 and was an academic all-conference honoree every semester of his career.
  3. HE BEGAN HIS PROFESSIONAL CAREER AS A CONGRESSIONAL AIDE: Heird spent five years in Washington working for Congressman Mike Simpson of Idaho and Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado.
  4. HE WORKED 10 YEARS UNDER TOM JURICH AT LOUISVILLE: Heird worked previously at Louisville from 2007-16, with his last role being that of assistant athletic director for championships and facilities from 2012-16. In that job, he had oversight of capital projects and assisted with the day-to-day management of facility operations. Heird was responsible for the management of all ACC and NCAA postseason events hosted by UofL. During his time at Louisville, Heird helped design and oversee the construction of the Jim Patterson Baseball Stadium expansion, the Ulmer Softball Stadium expansion, the building of the Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Soccer Stadium, the lacrosse stadium press box as well as the Thorntons Academic Center of Excellence. He began his career at UofL as assistant director of championships in April 2007 before being promoted to the director of championships in 2009.
  5. HE LEFT FOR VILLANOVA IN 2016: While at Villanova, Heird served as senior associate athletics director and chief athletics operating officer at Villanova in 2018-19 after operating for nearly two years as associate AD for internal operations and finance. In those roles, he provided leadership for all internal units of the athletic department and had administrative oversight with finance and budget, capital projects, ticket and equipment operation, food service, camps and overall project and event management.

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