PoA067 | Ken Ralph, Colorado College

Ralph was named Director of Athletics in 2007 and currently manages a department with a budget of $8.5 million and 14 NCAA Division III and two NCAA Division I (men’s ice hockey, women’s soccer) programs.

Before returning west in 2007, he spent five years as AD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Like Colorado College, Rensselaer also is a Division III school with two Division I teams, so Ralph was no stranger to the athletic department’s multi-divisional status upon his arrival. He’d been involved in January 2004 when the NCAA voted overwhelmingly in favor of amended legislation that permits both schools and six other Division III institutions to continue granting financial aid to student-athletes who compete on their Division I teams. For CC, the outcome preserved men’s ice hockey and women’s soccer at the Division I level. For RPI, it was Division I men’s and women’s hockey. Other schools affected were Clarkson University, Hartwick College, Johns Hopkins University, Rutgers-Newark, St. Lawrence University, and SUNY-Oneonta.
Prior to his stint at Rensselaer, Ralph served as senior assistant director of athletics, head swimming coach and head water polo coach at Connecticut College; director of aquatics, head swimming coach and physical education instructor at University of Evansville; assistant swimming coach and physical education instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy; director of aquatics and head swimming coach at Kutztown University; director of aquatics and head swimming coach at Georgetown University; assistant swimming coach at the University of Missouri; and assistant swimming coach at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He has served on committees for ECAC Hockey, USA Hockey, and the Liberty League.

Ralph is a 1991 graduate of Alaska Anchorage, where he earned five NCAA Division II All-America awards in swimming, was twice named UAA Swimmer of the Year, and was a USS Senior National Qualifier. In 2005, he was inducted into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in sports management studies from California University (Pa.).

Courtesy: Colorado College Website

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