Sacred Heart executive director of athletics C. Donald Cook has announced that he will retire, effective July 1, 2013.
Cook has been at Sacred Heart for the past 20 years.
“I have been truly blessed to have been in the same industry my entire career,” Cook said in a statement. “I couldn’t have imagined in April 1966, my first year of college coaching, that it would be the first of 46 plus years in the same profession.”
Cook arrived at Sacred Heart in 1992 and under his leadership, he led the Pioneers’ move to Division I status, which began in 1999 as a full member of the Northeast Conference and in 1998 as a member of the MAAC in hockey. SHU also became a charter member of the Atlantic Hockey Association in 2003-04, is a recent chair of the Atlantic Hockey executive committee and is serving on the league’s strategic planning committee.
Prior to his time at Sacred Heart, Cook was a co-founder and the first president of the MAAC, a former president of the ECAC, a member of the NCAA Council and served on the NCAA Division I-A and I-AA Football Issues Committee.
There will be a national search conducted for his replacement.
