
DATE: Thursday, September 25, 1997          TAG: 9709250546

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                        LENGTH:   65 lines

VA. TECH CHOOSES REFORMER AS ITS NEW ATHLETIC DIRECTOR WEAVER HAS HELPED REBUILD PROGRAMS AT FLORIDA, UNLV.

Virginia Tech, which toughened its athletic standards after recent player scandals, on Wednesday named a new athletic director who is a proven reformer with roots at squeaky-clean Penn State.

Jim Weaver, the athletic director at Western Michigan for the past two years, replaces Dave Braine, who left Virginia Tech in June to become athletic director at Georgia Tech.

Virginia Tech president Paul Torgersen said Weaver's broad experience won him the job.

Weaver, who signed a four-year contract, spent three years rebuilding the athletic program at Nevada-Las Vegas after the school was hit with major NCAA sanctions and basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian resigned under pressure. Weaver left UNLV in 1994 when the school decided to bring back one of Tarkanian's assistants.

Weaver, 52, also was hired as an athletic administrator by the University of Florida in 1983 after it was sanctioned by the NCAA. He stayed there until 1991.

Weaver said that various schools' interest in him as a reformer can be traced to Penn State, which pioneered the development of programs to make sure NCAA rules were being followed.

Weaver won a scholarship to play football at Penn State. He stayed on at Penn State as an assistant coach for six seasons under Joe Paterno.

Weaver also was a football coach at Villanova and an assistant professor at Clarion State.

The Virginia Tech football team has been plagued by problems with the law. Over the past two years, 20 players have been arrested on charges ranging from shoplifting to rape.

In an effort to deal with the problem, Torgersen and Braine put together a set of standards for athletes last February. They include tougher sanctions, more drug testing, expanded player counseling and more attention to character assessment in recruiting.

Under the new system, the authority for deciding penalties against athletes has been taken away from head coaches and given to the athletic director.

Torgersen said the top priority for Virginia Tech is to get all its sports into a single conference, and Weaver promised to reach that goal in 2000, when football TV contracts expire. Tech's football team is in the Big East; the school's other sports are in the Atlantic 10. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Virginia Tech president Paul Torgersen, right, introduces Jim

Weaver, who signed a four-year contract to serve as athletic

director.

Graphic

WEAVER AT A GLANCE

Born: 1945, Harrisburg, Pa.

Education: Bachelor of science and masters in college counseling

and student personnel services, Penn State.

Career: Penn State offensive line coach, 1967-1972; Iowa State

offensive coordinator, 1973; Villanova football coach, 1974; Clarion

College assistant professor, 1975-1979; Athletic Attic director of