Laing E. Kennedy is a sports administrator. He previously served as athletic director for

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in As ...

Kent, Ohio Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 28,215 at the 2020 Census. The city is counted as pa ...

, United States since 1994 and previously served as athletic director at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

from 1983 to 1994. In 2005 he began serving as a member of the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee in a five-year position, the second representative ever from the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

. He currently resides in Kent, Ohio.

Background

Kennedy is a native of

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. He attended college at

, earning a bachelor's degree in animal science in 1963. While at Cornell, he was a member of the

Quill and Dagger Quill and Dagger is a senior honor society at Cornell University. It is often recognized as one of the most prominent societies of its type, along with Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key at Yale University. In 1929, ''The New York Times'' stated t ...

society and played for the men's ice hockey team. As a goalkeeper he earned All-Ivy League honors for three consecutive years and attained All-America status in 1963 along with being named Cornell's Outstanding Athlete.

Career

Cornell University

Kennedy served as Cornell's athletic director from 1983 to 1994. While there, Cornell totaled nine team national championships, 36 Ivy League team championships and 102 All-Americans. It was also during his tenure that several upgrades were made to athletic facilities including the press box and playing surface at

Schoellkopf Field Schoellkopf Field is a 21,500-capacity stadium at Cornell University's Ithaca campus that opened in 1915 and is used for the Cornell Big Red football, sprint football and lacrosse teams. It is located just north of Cascadilla Creek on the southe ...

and construction of the Alberding Field House (now Bartels Hall) and the Oxley Equestrian Center.

Kent State University

Kennedy served as athletic director at

from 1994 to June 30, 2010. Through the 2008–09 season, Kennedy's tenure has seen the Golden Flashes win 251 individual

titles, 85 MAC team titles, along with 83 All-America honors. All four of Kent State's Reese Trophy wins, awarded for best men's athletic accomplishments in the MAC, occurred under Kennedy with the most recent being in 2009. The women's athletic teams have won the MAC's Jacoby Trophy 5 times under Kennedy with both men and women consistently finishing in the top 3. He oversaw the addition of two varsity sports, women's soccer and women's golf, and major facility upgrades at

Dix Stadium Dix Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Kent, Ohio, United States. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Kent State Golden Flashes football team. In addition, since 2016 the stadium is also home to the Kent S ...

, the MAC Center, and Olga Mural Field at Schoonover Stadium. New facilities built during Kennedy's tenure include Murphy-Mellis Field for

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

, the Ferrara and Page Golf Training and Learning Center for men's and women's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, the Diamond at Dix for

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, and the Athletic Academic Resource Center for all KSU student-athletes. Kent State was given full certification by the NCAA both in 1997 and 2004. He also oversaw completion of a comprehensive gender equity study, and the formation of two organizations: the National Athletic Development Council which systematically evaluates the various sports programs and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee which provides input on the department's planning process. Kennedy was named the Northeast Region Division I-A Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in both 2002 and 2006. In August of 2009, he announced that he would retire after the conclusion of the 2009-2010 athletic season.

Awards and honors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Laing Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Cornell Big Red athletic directors Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players Kent State Golden Flashes athletic directors Sportspeople from Kent, Ohio People from Woodstock, Ontario Sportspeople from Oxford County, Ontario