Duquesne President Gormley Reflects on Athletics Progress

Nearly 15 minutes had passed when Duquesne University President Ken Gormley pulled out a wallet, admittedly tattered because of one item that holds so much significance and pride, that he has held onto as a constant reminder for over two years now.

In Gormley’s wallet every day since March 2024 is a piece of the Barclays Center net cut down after the Duquesne Men’s Basketball team won the Atlantic 10 Championship, advancing to its first NCAA Tournament in 47 years.

On July 1, Gormley will step down as university president and will stay on as chancellor. In preparation of that, he spoke to PSN reflecting on how athletics progressed during his tenure.

“It is hard to even catch a few minutes to look back right now because it’s so busy getting to the finish line,” he admitted. “When I first started in 2016, don’t forget I had been here since 1994 as a law professor and dean, and I heard constantly alums and faculty/staff complaining about men’s basketball specifically and our lack of commitment to athletics more generally. That was one of the things I committed to trying to do.”

Gormley readily admitted that he did not come from an athletics background and that made it scary to a degree given that he knew little about it from a business sense. With that being said, he understood that athletics had an importance to help lift Duquesne up and the effort was made to invest more money in order to get better results.

Dave Harper had just earlier in the year started out as director of athletics, a title which later changed to vice president of athletics and in so doing he reported to Gormley.

Gormley was struck by Harper’s partnership because from the start he had a vision.

The first major decision came with Keith Dambrot’s hire as men’s basketball coach. This was Harper’s recommendation and it was a big step for Duquesne as it required a bigger financial number to hire a successful coach.

What won Gormley over was Dambrot’s connection with his father Sid, who excelled at Duquesne in the 1950’s. Gormley believed Dambrot wanted to come back and make the men’s program special in honor of his dad. It was that very connection which sold him.

In 2019 Gormley and Harper collaborated once again, deciding to rebrand Duquesne Athletics with a new logo, while also switching from Adidas to Nike.

Admittedly Gormley did hear some grumbling with people opposed to change, but the old logo still remained with the university as opposed to this look geared towards athletics. He appreciated that it appeared sleek, athletic and competitive.

“Ken was not only a tremendous supporter of mine, but we also became friends,” reflected Harper. “We could have very transparent conversations for the good. He asked for outcomes and it was my job to deliver those outcomes, and I couldn’t think of a better person to do what we did in terms of the president position in Ken Gormley. To see him be able to enjoy those moments, embrace those moments, take advantage of those moments for the institution was just great satisfaction for me.”

UPMC COOPER FIELDHOUSE

Several years later, Gormley admitted his biggest risk associated with athletics was the renovation of the old A.J. Palumbo Center into what ultimately became the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

As he explained it, this was a decision that could be a make or break early on with a lot of money needed when it was not plentiful.

“A few things convinced me that it was the right thing to do,” he remembered. “(Harper) was of the view build it and they will come. There’s a certain amount of truth to that, but I also looked at it as a university asset, not just a basketball or volleyball arena. This place was worn out; it had not had a major refurbishment in decades and yet it is the only big gathering space we have for the university that can hold the whole student body. I just decided that this was also an investment in the university, for our commencements, for our programs. I wanted to go back to having concerts which we used to do in the early days of the Palumbo Center. As you can see, that turned out to be correct.”

The decision to renovate was a collective one, one which had to be determined as a university. Duquesne’s investment was also tied to athletics as well as Dambrot’s initial hiring.

One of many pleasant surprises to Gormley was that the Spiritan priests were some of biggest advocates for the renovated venue. It was the realization that athletics and spaces such as this could bring a community together.

It was a challenge nonetheless because it was being built in the middle of COVID. Much of the contributions were made by alumni, people who bought the overall vision. It was the combined idea of a couple of alums and Harper to name the venue the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse and elevate Chuck Cooper’s legacy, one which had been overlooked. It is a legacy which has been recognized and elevated by the NBA since.

When Gormley heard the combined name, he thought it was exactly the identity the building was destined to have.

Duquesne launched the renovated arena on Feb. 2, 2021, against Dayton, but due to COVID restrictions, only 50 people were able to watch that game, one in which the Dukes emerged victorious.

“I do have a little competitiveness and love when we beat Dayton,” beamed Gormley. “It was remarkable to me, and I still remember looking out the windows of this new beautiful arena and there were probably 20-30 young men and women from some other teams with their faces pressed against because it was winter, looking just to see a snippet of the game to see this beautiful place. I thought, ‘this is going to draw our students into really being great participants’ and that has really happened.”

FAVORITE MOMENT

There were a lot of things that stuck out to Gormley in his time as president. Another extremely early memory came in his first year when the men’s basketball team won the City Game against Pitt. Gormley who earned his undergraduate degree at Pitt could not help himself and ran on the court to celebrate. Earlier on in that season, football won an NEC title.

Bowling was just starting and in Gormley’s youth that was the pastime of Pittsburgh. Acrobatics & Tumbling was an idea Harper brought that Gormley believed could be a winner but even he did not expect to see how soon that prove to be true.

Gormley has supported each of the teams on campus, whether through several women’s basketball WNIT runs, or believing in Harper and football coach Jerry Schmitt’s vision to schedule big games.

Initially there was apprehension at the thought of scheduling Florida State or Hawaii. When Gormley went to Hawaii for the game, he considered it akin to a Steelers tailgate. Immediately he further understood the vision.

“This was a great experience for the players, great for the institution but they were competitive,” Gormley considered. “The WVU game they were standing there in horror, we could’ve beaten them until the lightning string came. Even the Pitt game, even though the score was lopsided and they should never have scored that last touchdown, that was a real game and anyone not watching that did not realize it. I’ve been very proud of that.”

Gormley also recognizes that Duquesne has multiple players competing at professional levels, specifically naming football’s Christian Kuntz, women’s basketball’s Megan McConnell and men’s soccer’s Jayden Da.

Seeing so many teams excel proves to Gormley’s point that Duquesne set out to do something and punched above its weight in almost every one of the instances. This is a reference to conference opponents who are acknowledged to have more resources.

Perhaps the most known example was what men’s basketball accomplished in 2023-24, losing its first five conference games, but maintaining belief in each other and the shared vision.

Dambrot would retire having ended a 47-year drought and the university responded by naming him, Dae Dae Grant and Jimmy Clark III to the athletics hall of fame.

“It was such a thrilling thing that made history for us,” detailed Gormley. “Then going to Nebraska it was like a dream world. I would even meet people rooting for us from the other team because we were the Cinderella team. I like to tell alums when I go around the country that in the day after that first win, the word Duquesne was the number one trending word on Twitter in the United States. Finally, people learned how to say Duquesne properly. I was down in the floor and Keith was in tears as was (Harper) and he has a tough exterior. It was the dreams of so many alums and the bars and restaurants that we gathered before and after. There was a sense of euphoria. We had done what people asked for so long to elevate those programs. I do take pride in that.”

Gormley has less than two months remaining before David Dausey takes over as president and he assumes the post of chancellor.

Duquesne Athletics found a lot of collective success during Gormley’s time as president. His belief in athletics and its place within the collective university experience helped advance a lot of teams and modernized the collective.

“This has been my home for my whole career,” he concluded. “The academic pieces I care about a lot also obviously, but when you do athletics correctly, it can make college experience magical, not only for the students, but the alums and even for those who work at the university. I feel we’ve accomplished that. It’s thanks to the great work of Dave Harper and his team and so many alums who contributed and got behind it, so many people like our friend Ray Goss, may he rest in peace. So many people have believed in this, this athletic program and it has proven that it can deliver.”