Athletic Director Patrick Kraft leaves Temple for BC

Written by: Cayden Steele

Temple’s athletic director Pat Kraft is leaving to become the new athletic director at Boston College. Kraft has received a five-year contract, Yahoo Sports reported. Kraft has been the athletic director at Temple since May 2015. 

Temple President Richard M. Englert stated Kraft’s dedication to his student-athletes was noticeable. 

“Academic excellence has been a hallmark of Pat’s tenure at Temple,” said Englert. “Temple athletes broke records year after year for their performance in the classroom, as well as on the playing field.” 

During his administration, student-athletes set a record for nine consecutive semesters with a combined GPA of 3.10 or greater and they achieved a record 15 consecutive semesters above a 3.0. 

Kraft had great success with the football program. The Owls won the 2016 American Athletic Conference Championship, which broke a 39-year drought of not winning a conference championship. The program won 20 combined games in a two-year span (2015-2016) and were nationally ranked both of those years. 

During Kraft’s tenure, the Owls set a record for making four consecutive bowl games and they won the 2017 Gasparilla Bowl. 

Kraft had a revolving door of football coaches during his administration but he always replaced them successfully. Geoff Collins was hired to replace Matt Rhule who went 15-10 in his two years with the Owls. In 2018, Collins left to take the job at Georgia Tech and Kraft replaced him with Rod Carey who went 8-5 in his first year.

Kraft was also successful with the basketball programs. The Men’s team won its first American Athletic Conference Regular Season title in 2016. They also made the NCAA tournament in 2016 and 2019. In 2017, the Women’s team made the top 25 and made its first NCAA tournament in five years. 

In 2015, The men’s soccer team made the top 25 for the first time since 1997 and in 2016, lacrosse was in the top 20 for the first time since 2005. In 2018, the Gymnastics program reached its highest ranking in program history at No. 13 and in 2019, they won its first ever ECAC championship. 

According to the Boston Globe, during Kraft’s time at Temple annual donations increased 75 percent. The increase in donations helped build the Temple Sports Complex. 

“We are grateful to Pat for all that he has done,” Englert said in the statement. “I wish Pat, Betsy, and their wonderful family every success in their new phase of their lives. But wherever they go, they will always be members of the Temple family.”

Kraft has agreed to stay at Temple through July 1 to help with the transition of finding his replacement, according to the statement.