Longtime OU Athletic Department Staffer Mike Houck Named AD for Communication
By Chip Rouse
Mike Houck has worked for 20 years in the OU athletics communications area, and on Friday he was named assistant to the athletic director for strategic communications.
His primary area of responsibility in his new role will be to serve as the primary contact for the media and other interested parties on anything to do with Sooner football.
The announcement was made by Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione in a news release published on the OU athletics website.
Houck has worked more than 150 OU football games in his 20 years at the University of Oklahoma, including every Red River Showdown game with Texas since 1995. For the past 19 years, the University of Wisconsin alum has served as the official spotter for the OU press box stats crew.
“Words can’t adequately express how much I’ve enjoyed the last two decades working so closely with the OU men’s basketball program. Those are significant memories I’ll always cherish.” —Mike Houck
Houck began his career in the Sooner athletics department in the 1995-96 school year, working initially as an intern. He had held the positions of assistant director and director of communications, and in 2012 assumed the role of director of media relations.
For the past 14 years, he has teamed with Sooner play-by-play announcers Bob Barry, Sr. and Toby Rowland, serving as a color analyst on men’s basketball radio broadcasts over the Sooner Sports Network. His first season was 2002-03, the same season the OU men advanced to the NCAA Final Four.
The 43-year-old Houck has been the primary media contact for Sooner men’s basketball for all 20 years he has been at OU.
“Words can’t adequately express how much I’ve enjoyed the last two decades working so closely with the great people of the OU men’s basketball program,” Houck was quoted in the news release issued by the university.
“Those are significant memories I’ll always cherish,” he added. “But I’m incredibly excited about and grateful for this new opportunity to coordinate publicity for the OU football program and oversee the athletic department’s strategic communications effort.
Two of Houck’s media guides for the Sooner men’s basketball program have won high national recognition. The 2010-11 OU Men’s Basketball Media Guide was judged as the third best in the nation by the College Sports Information Directors of America, and the media guide for the season before was named fourth best nationally by the same group.
Houck was awarded the inaugural presentation of the Will Hancock Award in 2001. That award is national in scope and recognizes excellence in athletics website management and direction.