DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709240632

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RANDY KING, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE 

                                            LENGTH:   48 lines

W. MICHIGAN AD REPORTEDLY WILL TAKE REINS AT TECHJIM WEAVER'S HIRING AS DAVE BRAINE'S REPLACEMENT COULD COME AS EARLY AS TODAY.

Jim Weaver, director of athletics at Western Michigan, will be named athletic director at Virginia Tech, The Roanoke Times learned Tuesday night.

An official announcement on Weaver's hiring could come as soon as today, a Tech source who requested anonymity said.

Weaver, 52, could not be reached for comment at his home Tuesday night. However, a Western Michigan source confirmed Weaver met with athletic administration officials Tuesday afternoon in Kalamazoo, Mich., and informed them he was accepting the job at Tech.

Weaver, according to a source, was one of two finalists for the job along with Sharon McCloskey, who has served as Tech's interim athletic director since Dave Braine resigned June 2 to become athletic director at Georgia Tech.

Miami (Ohio) athletic director Eric Hyman, a former AD at VMI, and Mitch Barnhart, a senior associate AD at Tennessee, were the other candidates who were interviewed for the job in Washington on Sept. 11.

McCloskey, a Tech graduate who was Braine's senior associate AD, had been considered by many the favorite for the post. The Tech athletic community openly backed McCloskey, with all 19 coaches signing a letter of support for the in-house candidate.

In the end, Weaver's broad sports background, expertise in fund raising and NCAA compliance, as well as numerous athletic contacts, swayed Tech president Paul Torgersen, one source said.

Weaver has been AD at Western Michigan since Jan. 1, 1996. Before going to the Mid-American Conference school, Weaver was AD at Nevada-Las Vegas for three years. In his tenure at UNLV, Weaver was responsible for raising more than $10 million for new athletic facilities, as well as $4.7 million for the academic community.

From 1983 to '91, Weaver was director of recruiting and high school relations and an assistant and associate athletic director at Florida.

At Florida and UNLV, Weaver received much of the credit for cleaning up athletic programs that had been penalized by the NCAA for rules infractions.

Weaver's background also includes strong football ties.

The Harrisburg, Pa., native was a center and linebacker at Penn State. He was the Nittany Lions' offensive line coach under Joe Paterno from 1967 to '72. He served as offensive coordinator at Iowa State in 1973, and was head football coach at Villanova in 1974.

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