Patric Simon, the former athletic director for Langston University in Oklahoma, has been chosen as Tuskegee’s new athletic director. He will replace Alvin Jackson who had been the university’s athletic director since February 2010. Simon will assume his responsibilities today.

During his four-year tenure with Langston, Simon had a combined total of 10 conference championships in the Red River Athletic Conference and Central State Football League of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. His conference championships include: the RRAC championships for track and field in 2009 and 2010, consecutive championships for the Langston’s women’s basketball team in 2009, 2010 and 2011; championships for the Langston football team in 2008 and 2009 and a RRAC championship for the women’s cross country team in 2010.

Under Simon, Langston was ranked the No. 1 Historically Black University and College in the NAIA in Director’s Cup standings. In the 2011 standings for Learfield Sports, Langston University was the top school in both the Red River Athletic Conference and Central States Football League for a third consecutive year.

While at Langston, Simon also established the Family Welcome Center, the Student athlete Advisory Board and organized student-athlete seminar sessions to prepare students for life after college athletics.  Also, he was able to increase the average student-athlete GPA to 2.75, the highest it had been in a decade at the university. Simon also implemented a new website for the Langston athletics program that provides games scores and stories.

Simon is a 1977 graduate of Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina. In 1989, he earned a master’s degree from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta