St. Francis University names James Downer as athletic director, will apparently cut no sports

James Downer
Photo: Eastern Kentucky University

… he will have his hands full with the challenges provided by Covid-19

St. Francis announced in a release on Tuesday that it had hired an Eastern Kentucky University administrator as its Director of Athletics,

… James Downer has been hired as the school's Director of Athletics.  Downer joins the Red Flash after spending the past three years at Eastern Kentucky University, where he served as the school's Senior Associate Athletics Director …

Over his three-year tenure at Eastern Kentucky beginning in 2017, Downer served as the sport administrator for football and men's basketball and supervised several departments including compliance, media relations, ticket operations, marketing and development. Downer additionally oversaw football and men's basketball scheduling and played pivotal roles in several coaching hires, secured athletic department contracts with Adidas, Learfield/IMG College and launched the EKUSports Mobile App.

Downer began his collegiate athletic career at the University of Central Oklahoma. He held senior level administrator roles at Nicholls State University and Presbyterian College.

“James Downer Named New Director of Athletics,” St. Francis 
Athletics Communication, July 14, 2020

The release also notes that Downer will field 23 NCAA Div. I sports, seven above the NCAA minimum. 

Downer succeeds Susan Robinson Fruchtl, a former basketball star at Penn State and coach at SFU who served as athletic director for approximately four years and resigned in March. 

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