University of North Texas Athletics
Villarreal Honored as Pioneer in Athletics
6/28/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football
University of North Texas Director of Athletics Rick Villarreal was honored Wednesday by the John McClendon Minority Athletics Administrators Hall of Fame. Villarreal was recognized as a 2012 Pioneer Award winner for being the first Latino Director of Athletics in the Sun Belt Conference.
Villarreal was one of 12 recipients of the Pioneer Award, which included Jerry LeVias of SMU, John Thompson of Georgetown, Beverly Kearney of Texas, Alfred White of Conference USA, Herman Frazier of the USOC, Rudy Davalos of New Mexico, James Cash of the Southwest Conference, Carlton Cooper of the Lonestar Conference, Evie Dennis of the USOC and Linwood Sexton of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Villarreal has been the Director of Athletics at North Texas since 2001 and has had numerous administrative roles with the Sun Belt Conference and has served on several NCAA committees.
The McClendon Hall of Fame reception was held in conjunction with the 47th annual National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention that was held in Dallas this week.
