Seven years have slipped by since Dave Hart assumed leadership of Mizzou's men's and women's athletic program. Good years, productive years, they've been in terms of competitive achievement on the conference, NCAA and bowl levels—as well as in the expansion and upgrading of the Tigers' overall facilities.
Hart swings into Phase Two of his administrative cycle in 1985-86. The advent of Coach Woody Widenhofer's football regime should create resurgent spectator attendance. And the "new look" extends to Faurot Field where artificial turf replaced the natural grass topping this fall.
That $1.3 million project, in Hart's progressive view, also brings closer the day when Mizzou's long-needed outdoor track facility will become a reality. It will free up practice fields that can be converted to a track complex.
Other capital improvements during the Hart administration included an addition of 10,500 permanent seats on Faurot Field's south end; expansion of the Dutton Brookfield football facility; a hardwood basketball floor at Hearnes Center; new scoreboard/message boards for football, basketball and baseball; upgrading facilities at Simmons baseball field, including lights; and renovation of the football press box.
When he came to Missouri in 1978, after a five-year term as director of athletics at the University of Louisville, Hart inherited an operating budget of $5.1 million. That figure will reach $8.8 million this academic year when a more stringent budget is dictated to offset escalating costs and declining football and television revenue.
Yet, Hart's goals as overseer of an 18-sport program are to keep the athletic department financially sound while maintaining quality representation in all sports.
To that end, fund-raising efforts at Mizzou—since Hart's initiation of the Missouri Athletic Scholarship Association (MASA) program—yearly generate more than $1 million with a high of $2.2 million in 1984-85. Overall, the fund-raising efforts have generated over $6.5 million for the athletic department since Hart initiated the MASA program in 1979. The Tigers' endowment fund now stands at $5.2 million, compared to $200,000 just four years ago.
Hart is also responsible for negotiating a unique five-year, $6.2 million contract with Learfield Communications, since extended. The broker's contract gave radio and television broadcasting rights to Learfield, but also involved other marketing and promotional commitments.
As a member of the College Football Association's Television Committee, chairman of the Big Eight's counterpart, and a member of the NCAA Division I Basketball Selection Committee, Hart is actively involved on the national level with TV networks—and his expertise has been a budget-booster, too.
Currently Hart is second vice-president of the National Association of Collegiate Athletic Directors.
Hart's background as a former college football player and coach provided his entrée into the administrative area. After an outstanding high school football coaching career in his native Pennsylvania, he was an assistant at the University of Kentucky and the U.S. Naval Academy. For four years he was head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh, and briefly was a scout for the Dallas Cowboys.
Dave also spent 28 months in the U.S. Air Force, flying 30 missions during World War II to earn a distinguished flying cross.
He earned his bachelor's degree from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., in 1951, and his master's in administration from the University of Pittsburgh in 1959.
A native of Connellsville, Pa., Hart is married to the former Earlyn Fromme Hulse, a 1951 Missouri graduate.