{"id":28098,"date":"2025-04-29T13:15:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/?p=28098"},"modified":"2025-04-29T13:31:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:31:55","slug":"marshall-university-and-ad-spears-mutually-agree-to-part-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/2025\/04\/marshall-university-and-ad-spears-mutually-agree-to-part-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshall University and AD Spears mutually agree to part ways"},"content":{"rendered":"
Marshall University and Athletic Director Christian Spears announce their mutual agreement that Spears’ contract will not be renewed.<\/p>\n

During his tenure at Marshall, Spears oversaw a tremendous period of program growth and athletic achievement. Highlights include the opening of Jack Cook Baseball Field, Sun Belt Conference Championships in Football, Men’s Soccer and Women’s Basketball, and notable academic success – culminating in a collective 3.36 GPA for student athletes in Fall 2024.<\/p>\n

“We are grateful for Christian’s passionate leadership and substantial contributions to Marshall Athletics,” said Brad D. Smith, president of Marshall University. “From championship seasons to key facility upgrades, Christian is leaving the athletic department in a strong position. We wish him continued success in his next venture.”<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his time at Marshall, Spears shared, “It has been my honor to serve this incredible university. I am proud of the victories we’ve earned, both on the field and in the classroom. My family and I cherish the friendships we have made here and are grateful for having been a part of such a remarkably special place. I continue to support Marshall Athletics and look forward to hearing of its future success.”<\/p>\n

The university will immediately begin a national search for its next Athletic Director, while Spears will continue to serve in his role during the transition.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marshall University and Athletic Director Christian Spears announce their mutual agreement that Spears’ contract will not be renewed. During his tenure at Marshall, Spears oversaw a tremendous period of program growth and athletic achievement. Highlights include the opening of Jack Cook Baseball Field, Sun Belt Conference Championships in Football, Men’s Soccer and Women’s Basketball, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28098"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28104,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28098\/revisions\/28104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}