Ben Murray returned to West Virginia University as its deputy athletics director in August 2023, serving as the department’s chief development officer and providing oversight to the Mountaineer Athletic Club (MAC).
Murray previously spent time at West Virginia from 2010-21, starting as a major gifts officer, then associate athletics director before ending his tenure as the senior associate athletics director and executive director of the MAC.
As WVU’s newest deputy athletics director, he will manage, lead and direct all development efforts for athletics, including but not limited to the annual fund, endowments, capital projects and major gifts. He will serve on the senior leadership teams in athletics and the WVU Foundation, with additional sport oversight duties to be determined.
Murray returns to Morgantown from Nebraska, where he has spent the last two years serving as the Huskers’ senior associate athletics director for development, leading all fundraising initiatives with additional oversight of ticket operations.
He managed a Husker development team that exceeded $100 million in contributions combined during the last two years, while topping more than $80 million in ticket revenue during the two-year span. He managed Nebraska’s “Go Big Campaign” and led the transition to new stadium club seats, bringing in an additional $3.8 million to the athletics department.
While leading the MAC in his first stint at West Virginia, Murray oversaw the solicitation efforts for a combined total of $100.1 million in production from 2017-21. From 2017 to his departure, his MAC unit increased the overall Athletic Endowment Fund from $35 to $45 million.
Murray also spent time as the director of athletics development at Old Dominion from 2006-10. He coordinated, planned and administered the Old Dominion Athletics Foundation annual giving program. Murray started his professional career in August of 2003 at James Madison as a development associate in the JMU Duke Club. He also spent time at UNLV in 2005 working with the Rebel Athletic Fund.
Murray graduated from Kansas in 2001 with a degree in sports management and earned a master’s in sports administration from Kansas in 2003. An Elkhart, Kansas, native, Murray and his wife, Angela, have three children – Mia, Libby and Sadie.
