Former longtime Northern Michigan University athletic director and hockey coach Rick Comley will serve as interim athletic director starting Monday, the university announced Friday.
The move comes after current athletic director Forrest Karr resigned.
A national search for a permanent athletic director is set to start soon.
NMU’s current longtime NCAA faculty representative Julie Rochester will become the senior adviser for athletics for the upcoming academic year. She will provide additional support, especially related to NCAA compliance.
Comley served as the university’s athletic director for 13 years from 1987 through 2000.
He also brought NCAA Division I national men’s hockey championships to NMU in 1991 and Michigan State University in 2007 and was NMU’s first and longest-serving head coach of the men’s hockey program.
The rink at NMU’s Berry Events Center is named in his honor.
Rochester is a professor and director of NMU’s athletic training education program. She began her career at NMU as an athletic trainer while Comley was athletic director.
