Sept. 11, 2006

Chicago, Ill. - University of Illinois at Chicago Athletic Director Jim Schmidt announced on Monday afternoon that Gregg Fort has joined the Flames staff in the development office, where he will serve as the executive director of the Big Red Fund.

The McKinney, Texas native, who is entering his 23rd year in college athletics, came to UIC after serving for three years as the associate athletic director for external affairs at Florida International University in Miami, Fla. During his time at FIU, Fort coordinated the department's external efforts, including athletic development, marketing, radio and television, community and media relations, tickets, licensing and corporate sponsorships.

After arriving at FIU in December 2003 as the associate athletic director for development, Fort's efforts included the largest athletic naming gift in FIU history (Pharmed Arena), the largest athletic endowment gift (Michael Feldsberg Memorial Scholarship), the department's first athletic shoe apparel partnership (adidas) and a campus-wide cellular partnership (Cingular).

Fort served as a member of the Golden Panther broadcast team as a color analyst for football and basketball. He also was the host and executive producer of the weekly FIU Sports Report. In addition, Fort developed the Golden Panther Radio Network in 2006, the first in FIU athletic history.

Active in both the Sun Belt Conference and NCAA, Fort served as a member of the NCAA Peer Review team in November 2005 at Valparaiso University.

Prior to his arrival at FIU, Fort served as the associate athletic director for external affairs at Stephen F. Austin. Fort began his nine-year tenure at SFA as the school's sports information director in 1990 and also coordinated and directed the institution's first comprehensive capital campaign. While at SFA, Fort developed the first campus-wide corporate partnership (Coca-Cola), supervised the Legacy Campaign that raised over $37 million and developed the Homer Bryce Stadium press box renovation project that included the sale of all suites and club seats.

A 1987 graduate of Austin (Texas) College, where he served four years as the sports information director, Fort's intercollegiate experience also includes four years with Host Communications as the general manager at both the Texas Tech and San Jose State properties.

Before joining Host's staff, Fort was selected to create the Lubbock Sports Authority for the city of Lubbock. Fort served as the LSA's first executive director.

Fort is married to a women's college basketball coach, Nicci Hays. Hays-Fort currently serves as an assistant to Doug Bruno at DePaul University.