Bio

Twitter: @ADPerkW

A Michigan native was tabbed to lead Ferris State University Athletics when Perk Weisenburger was appointed as the school's Athletics Director on Aug. 25, 2010.

Since taking over the Bulldog Athletics program in 2010, Weisenburger has led Ferris State to even greater heights. In his tenure, the Bulldogs have claimed 20 conference regular-season championships, 14 conference tournament titles and won eight NCAA regional championships along with the school's first NCAA Division II National Championship in men's basketball in 2018.

Over the past 10 years, the Bulldogs have also set department records for sales revenue, corporate sponsorships and royalties while posting four consecutive years of a cumulative department grade point average above a 3.0 overall. FSU student-athletes have also given back more than 5,000 hours of community service under his leadership.

Among the many highlights under Weisenburger's direction include the school's first-ever NCAA Division I Frozen Four showing and national championship game appearance in men's ice hockey in 2012 along with a berth into the NCAA Division II National Football Championship game in 2018. The men's tennis squad made back-to-back D2 Elite Eight apperances in 2015 and 2016, including one final four trip, while the men's golf team captured the regional title and reached the national quarterfinals in 2017. In addition, Bulldog Volleyball has won six-straight GLIAC Championships with the men's basketball team capturing four consecutive league tournament titles.

Prior to FSU, Weisenburger had served on the senior staff as the Associate Athletics Director for External Operations at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas since 2005.  He’s a 1979 graduate of Central Michigan University and the former Director of Athletics at NCAA Division I Illinois State University for five years. 

His appointment came following a nationwide search and screening process that yielded more than 75 applicants and involved a 10-member search committee.  He replaced former FSU Athletics Director Tom Kirinovic, who retired after more than 27 years as a member of the Bulldog Athletics Department.  Weisenburger began his duties at Ferris on Friday, Sept. 10, 2010.

As the athletics director, Weisenburger is responsible for the operations of Ferris State’s athletics department, which currently sponsors 17 intercollegiate varsity sports (nine for women and eight for men). Sixteen of the sports participate at the NCAA Division II level in the highly-competitive Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) while men's hockey competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA).

In his tenure at Nevada, Las Vegas, Weisenburger oversaw the coordination and operation of many external functions such as athletic marketing and promotions, licensing and athletic ticketing.  He also served as the department's liaison to multi-media rights partner International Sports Properties (ISP).

Prior to arriving at UNLV, Weisenburger spent five years (1999-2004) leading the athletics department at Illinois State and previously worked in athletics administration at other NCAA Division I institutions such as Wake Forest, Central Michigan, Washington and Houston. He was the Associate Director of Athletics for External Operations at CMU from 1989-95.

Weisenburger graduated from CMU with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He also earned a master's degree in sports administration from Ohio University (1982). He and his wife, Buffy, who are both Michigan natives, are the parents of two sons, Jack and Joe. His oldest son, Jack, was a student-athlete on the University of Michigan baseball squad.

Weisenburger’s career is filled with many impressive highlights.

While at UNLV, Weisenburger secured new multi-year agreements with an institutional licensing company, broadcast entities, website providers and spearheaded the department’s graphic refreshing and branding campaign.  Licensing royalty revenue went up by more than 87% in his tenure and he was the point person in outsourcing multimedia/sponsorship rights to ISP that brought the school significant revenue over the term.  He also led a process that revised, merged and implemented a new corporate relations structure resulting in a 22% revenue increase in 2006-07.  Additionally, he provided administrative oversight for the installation of new technology, video boards and signage in 2008 while also serving as the university’s liaison with fulfillment oversight of various cash and gift-in-kind partner contracts.

Prior to his arrival in Las Vegas, Weisenburger spent a year (2004-05) as a consultant to Division I institutions and organizations for research, data collection, analysis and consultation.  His projects included items such as a feasibility study of a priority men’s basketball seating plan at Ball State University and assisting the Division I-AA Athletic Director’s Association with enhancement initiatives.

While serving as the AD at Illinois State, Weisenburger secured funding and student fee support for new construction and facility enhancements addressing both competitive and welfare needs.  He also attained the first seven-figure gift to athletics for the construction of the Kaufman Football Building and a naming gift of $500,000 for the Owen Strength and Conditioning Center.  The RedBirds won 23 Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Championships in his tenure as athletics director and finished in the top three of the MVC All-Sports Standings all five years, including one first-place performance and three runner-up efforts.

Weisenburger oversaw the successful completion of Illinois State’s NCAA Certification process in 2002 and secured the 2005 State Farm MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament through a competitive bid process.  Student-Athlete’s earned an exhausted eligibility graduation rate of 85%, provided more than 1,200 hours of annual community service and participated in interview and job skills seminars with senior professionals under his watch. He also revitalized the Student-Athlete Academic Excellence Banquet by acquiring State Farm Insurance as the event underwriter, which allowed over 550 student-athletes, faculty/staff, families and donors to gather on-campus annually to support outstanding academic achievement.

Before his first athletics director position at Illinois State, Weisenburger worked from 1995-99 as the Associate Director of Athletics for Internal Operations at Wake Forest University where he was directly responsible for daily and comprehensive oversight of eight sports, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, game operations and facility management.  He was president of the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD) while at Wake Forest in 1995-96 and served on numerous Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) committees.  Additionally, he assisted in the construction planning and operation of new and renovated facilities besides coordinating search processes for the hiring of four head coaches and several other key department support personnel.

Weisenburger was the Associate Director of Athletics for External Operations at Central Michigan from 1989-95 and was directly responsible for oversight of six sports as well as other support positions.  He supervised the Chippewa Club where annual private contributions increased 66%, major donors increased 41% and total membership went up nearly 22% over a four-year span.  He also coordinated the sales efforts that helped CMU lead the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in average football attendance from 1991-94.  In his time with the Chippewas, Weisenburger negotiated and coordinated a three-year radio broadcast contract and developed a 14-station statewide network generating a sizeable annual gain for the university.

He began his career as a graduate assistant at Ohio University in 1980-81 where he coordinated ticket promotions and basketball game management.  From there, he was the manager of athletic marketing and promotions at the University of Houston from 1982-84 before becoming the director of athletic marketing and promotions at the University of Washington from 1984-89. 

Weisenburger’s time at Washington was marked by assisting in the writing and selling of radio bid specifications that awarded the then single largest broadcast rights fee ever in college athletics in 1985.  He also helped to generate dollars annually as an executive committee member for a grocery promotion and worked on a season ticket sales campaign that filled the new 13,000-seat upper deck in Husky Stadium in 1987.

A Mount Pleasant (Mich.) native, Weisenburger attended Central Michigan on a baseball scholarship and was a three-year letterwinner for the Chippewas.  He was the captain of CMU’s 1980 MAC Championship team and claimed Academic All-MAC laurels. He later served as a graduate assistant coach in the baseball program at Ohio.

He’s been active in community service throughout his administrative career, including serving as the co-chair of the annual Bloomington (Ill.) OSF St. Joseph Hospital Foundation fundraising gala in 2003 and as a youth baseball coach in the Paseo Verde Little League in Henderson, Nev., for five years.  He was also a board of directors member for the Josh Stevens Foundation, which helps remind children that there is a whole world in need of more acts of kindness.