Killgore out as Linfield A.D.

Linfield Athletic Director Garry Killgore has been reassigned to an administrative role following three months leave, the university announced Friday.

Since August, Senior Associate Athletic Director Doug Hire has filled in as interim AD and has agreed to stay on in the same capacity through the end of the school year, Linfield President Miles Davis announced via press release.

The university will conduct a “national search” to fill the athletic director position and hopes to have someone hired by the summer, the press release states.

Killgore will be reassigned to program developer for Online and Continuing Education when he returns from leave. He will build new online programs and “in-person continuing education opportunities,” and report to Linfield Vice President for Academic Affairs Beth Concepción, the release states.

Killgore has been at Linfield since 1989 and holds a Ph.D, in exercise science and biomechanics.

Hire, whose title is Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Facilities, Operations and Events, spent 20 years as coach and assistant AD for facilities. He was inducted into the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.

The reassignment comes after three months of leave, during which a group of alumni called for Killgore to be fired. The move is amid a series of departures for the university. Earlier this month, Davis announced he would be stepping down as president at the end of the year and Wednesday Tim Matz announced he is stepping down as chair of the wine studies program.

Linfield spokesperson Scott Nelson said the reassignment is part of a “systemic change” at the university.

“We’ve had a lot of change recently. Our president announced his intention to step down once an interim can be named, our director of wine studies is retiring and we have a new chief academic officer and a lot of new top leadership,” Nelson said in a statement. “We have been making changes to react to internal and external needs that are different than they were in the past. It’s time for systemic change in Linfield athletics as part of that larger overall shift. This move will support that shift.”