LITTLE ROCK — Chris Wyrick is the first executive director of the Razorback Foundation who did not play football at the Universityof Arkansas.
Wyrick, 46, is no stranger to UA athletics, though. He arrived at the Fayetteville university in May 2008 and has spent more than four yearsworking for the athletic department and with the foundation, which is the department’s private, nonprofit fundraising arm.
“I admire the fact that it’s[always] been a letter-winner to run this position,” said Wyrick, who was named head of the foundation Sept. 3. “That adds pressure to the job, but it’s pressure I embrace. Tothose who might be skeptical, I just ask that they give me a chance.”
Wyrick worked with the Razorback Foundation for ayear between 2010 and 2011 to implement the Razorback Seat Value Plan. That venture, which required fans to make donations to maintain seating in selected areas of Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville and War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, added 2,600 new members to the Razorback Foundation, and generated an additional $6.5 million annually to support University of Arkansas athletics.
The success of the seat value plan played a big role in the decision to have Wyrick replace former Razorback Foundation executive director Harold Horton, who retired from the position in July, Razorback Foundation board chairman Ken Mourton said in a news release. Horton had held the position since 2008.
Wyrick is the fifth person to head the Razorback Foundation. The previous four - Wilson Matthews, Terry Don Phillips, Chuck Dicus and Horton - all played football at Arkansas. The foundation began in the early 1970s.
“[Wyrick] is known for his ability to raise funds,” UA athletics director Jeff Long said in an e-mail. “He certainly has done that here at the University of Arkansas. He has a track record. He is a professional fundraiser.”
“His work on behalf of the Razorback Foundation with the R.S.V.P. program helped reshape the future of our membership and support,” Mourton said. “Chris understands the need for that continued support and what will be needed in the years to come to maintain a nationally competitive all-sports program.”
Before working with the Razorback Foundation, Wyrick was the senior associate athletic director for external affairs. After founding the seat value program, he returned to the athletic department as the senior associate athletic director for development.
His positions connected him to numerous aspects of Arkansas athletics, including licensing, media relations, marketing and promotions, multimedia partners and the department’s website, the news release said.
“I honestly believe 95 percent of business is relationships,” Wyrick said. “Knowing the dos and don’ts is tremendously helpful.
“Working in the athletic department these last 4 1/2 years gave me a really strong pulse as to what is unique about this athletic department, and gave me a strong sense of what it means to truly be a Razorback.”
Wyrick said his goal as head of the Razorback Foundation is to expand on the recordbreaking work accomplished under Horton. The foundation has more than 13,000 members, Wyrick said, and in the past fiscal year, generated more than $20 million in annual support and an additional $18 million in major gifts.
Like Wyrick, Horton said that the key to success was establishing and maintaining relationships.
“We were grinders,” Horton said. “It wasn’t from 8 o’clock to 5 o’clock. It was being there until you got the job done. One of our goals every year was to beat what we did the preceding year.”
A native of North Carolina, Wyrick is a 1992 graduate of North Carolina State University with a degree in political science. Before arriving in Arkansas, he worked in administrative positions at the University of South Carolina and Vanderbilt University.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/15/2012