GeeQ Sports: FAMU Officially Hires Kellen Winslow As New Athletic Director

Florida A&M has officially named College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow as the university’s new athletic director. Dr. Elmira Mangum, FAMU’s newly appointed President, announced the hire earlier today at a ceremony held for the former first-round pick inside FAMU’s Al Lawson Multipurpose Center. The former tight end will start his new position Tuesday, May 15.

“It’s his passion for the true meaning of the student-athlete that first brought him my attention,” said Mangum. “I look forward to working closely with him to develop outstanding student athletes and a championship-caliber environment.”

Winslow was the 13th overall selection in the 1979 NFLDraft, and he prospered in the NFL with an historic nine-year career with San Diego Chargers.

Winslow said the combination of meeting with President Magnum during Super Bowl weekend in New York is what led him to take this job.

“For me it just clicked,” Winslow said. “I liked her approach to the world of academia as well as sports and how (they) play a partnership together and it just made sense… She was very impressive, and I’m on the right team.”

Before he dominated the NFL for almost a decade, Winslow attended the University of Missouri in 1975, where he was named the Big Eight Player of the Year for his academic and athletic success.

Winslow previously served as vice president for athletics and wellness at Lakeland College in Plymouth, Wis., and he was the director of planning and new business development at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.

Despite only one gig as a school’s athletic director, Winslow feels he is more than qualified for this role.

"Everything that I've done in the past is preparation for what I'm doing today," Winslow said. "I played chess in high school, I didn't understand football until I realized it was a game of chess, and I was a knight. So, that experience which seems to have nothing to do with football is everything to me because it's all interrelated, same here."

Winslow is replacing Michael Smith, who served 10 months as the interim athletic director after FAMU fired Derek Horne, who was the universities athletic director for three years.

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