Ken Tyler
Ken Tyler dreams big. UMW’s new athletic director wants to make Mary Washington one of the top 25 NCAA Division III programs in the country.
Tyler, former director of athletics at West Virginia Wesleyan College, comes from a school with the largest athletic program in that state. He succeeds a UMW legend, Edward Hegmann, who retired in July after serving the University for 36 years.
At a press conference in May announcing Tyler’s selection, the new athletic director conceded that he had big shoes to fill. Tyler described Hegmann as “the architect of UMW athletics.”
“Mary Washington’s outstanding academic reputation, combined with its strong and broad-based athletic program, makes this one of the best small-college positions in the country,” Tyler said. Present at the news conference were several of his former athletes as well as two teammates and lifelong friends from his time as a student at the College of William and Mary, where he played on the men’s basketball team.
At WVWC, an NCAA Division II school with more than 500 student- athletes and 19 varsity sports, Tyler had amassed a long list of accomplishments, including the improvement of the football and other athletic teams during his tenure.
Tyler served on the Division II Athletic Directors Association Board of Directors, and he was the Atlantic Region Chair on the Division II National Men’s Basketball Committee. He has served as vice-chair of West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference athletic directors and as chair of the WVIAC Basketball Tournament Committee.
Tyler was an active community member in Buckhannon, W.Va. As a board member for the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle and former campaign chair, he helped the organization raise more than $3 million.
Before joining WVWC, Tyler spent seven years at Shepherd University, where he served as head men’s basketball coach and assistant athletic director. He had held the same two positions at Albright College in Pennsylvania for six years. He also had one-year stints as assistant men’s basketball coach at East Stroudsburg University, Roanoke College, and James Madison University, where he served under famed coach Charles “Lefty” Driesell.
Tyler earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the College of William and Mary. An avid reader and a Civil War enthusiast, he and his wife, Dawn, have a son, Jordan, 14, and a daughter, Logan, 10.