Dave Heeke has instilled his vision of a "Championship Culture" at Central Michigan University.

Athletic success, academic excellence, national media exposure, record fund-raising and a commitment to facilities have defined Heeke's tenure as CMU's director of athletics.

The Chippewas earned the Mid-American Conference's inaugural Cartwright Award after the 2008-09 academic year as the league's top overall institution, capturing the annual honor given to the program that most exemplifies excellence in academics, athletics and citizenship.

The 2009-10 academic year brought conference championships in football, women's soccer, wrestling, gymnastics and baseball. The Chippewas added conference tournament titles in women's soccer, wrestling and baseball while the men's basketball program repeated as the MAC West Division champion.

The department captured the 2007 Reese Trophy for MAC men's all-sports competition, and they have finished in the top three in four of his five years. In 2010, CMU placed second in the Reese standings and third in the Jacoby Trophy (women's all-sports) standings, following one of the most successful years in recent history, and the women's standing improved to second in 2011.

Academic Accomplishments
The athletic exploits of CMU's student-athletes are topped only by their academic accomplishments.

The Chippewas have earned the MAC's Institutional Academic Achievement Award 10 times in the last 13 years, and CMU's women's varsity programs combined to win the conference's inaugural Faculty Athletics Representative Academic Achievement Award following the 2007-08 academic year. The Chippewa soccer program posted the highest grade-point average in the country for eight consecutive years, while softball and field hockey routinely rank among the nation's highest team grade point averages.

Facility Improvements
Facility upgrades and renovations for all sports have been staples under Heeke's leadership. Highlighting his efforts is the ongoing capital campaign to fund the new CMU Events Center, which opened December 1, 2010. The $22.5 million project includes a complete renovation of the arena in the Rose Center, as well as the addition of a dynamic entryway and new practice facilities for basketball, volleyball and wrestling.

Among the first facility improvements Heeke oversaw was the installation of permanent lights at Kelly/Shorts Stadium to allow for flexible scheduling and television appearances for football. A new $2.5 million video scoreboard system, funded fully through private contributions, debuted during the 2007-08 seasons in both Kelly/Shorts and Rose Center. The Rose Center court was refinished with an updated floor design in 2006. Other additional facility improvements have included a $700,000 gymnastics practice facility, the naming and renovation of Margo Jonker Stadium for softball, stadium seating at the Field Hockey Complex, the resurfacing of the Jack Skoog Indoor Track and construction of a suite of track offices overlooking the Jack Skoog Indoor Track.

Fund-raising and External Notoriety
An increased focus on fund-raising has led to five consecutive record-breaking years - the most successful years of giving in the department's history. The 2007-08 school year marked the first time in school history that $1 million was generated for annual funds thanks to an all-time high in number of donors. In the past six years, the department's fund-raising numbers have doubled, increasing to $1,2 million in 2010-1. Heeke has reorganized athletic fund-raising through a new umbrella organization called the Chippewa Athletic Fund (CAF). In addition to the traditional Chippewa Club, the CAF includes the Championship Fund program that provides opportunities for donors to give directly toward a sport program's specific needs. The CAF also focuses on generating capital gifts to help improve and maintain facilities for the demands of tomorrow.

CMU Athletics has served as a front porch to the university through increased exposure during Heeke's tenure. Since the start of the 2006 season, Chippewa football has had more than half of its games televised, including many to national audiences on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. In 2009, the Chippewas played on television 10 times and finished the season ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press Poll. The Chippewas led the MAC in football attendance in both 2006 and 2008, and CMU set a school record with a crowd of 30,302 at its home game against Western Michigan in 2008. It was the first sellout in the expanded Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

Heeke led the formation of a partnership with XOS Technologies (now known as NeuLion) for the development of the cmuchippewas.com Web site, allowing Chippewa fans the ability to connect with the department through new features such as live video and audio. The site topped one million page views for the month of November 2009.

In 2009, Heeke announced an agreement between the athletics department and Adidas on an exclusive apparel and shoe contract. All of CMU's varsity athletics programs are now outfitted by Adidas, bringing consistency to color, design and logo usage on all uniforms and apparel. The contract marks the first time all of CMU's varsity athletics programs have been included in a single, all-encompassing apparel agreement, and it includes special apparel pricing for club sport programs, intramurals and other campus groups. The agreement also provides extensive retail opportunities for the university bookstore.

Special Projects and Recognitions
The Athletics Director Leadership Development Program was founded under Heeke's direction in 2008. The program is an athletics department-wide initiative that is designed to further instill the concepts of character development, social responsibility, citizenship and leadership in CMU's student-athletes. An advisory board that includes representatives from all areas of campus oversees the program.

Also in 2008, CMU received a diversity award from the Laboratory for Diversity in Sport at Texas A&M University. The department was recognized in the Value and Attitudinal Diversity category.

Heeke is contributing to the national landscape as a member of the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee and the Division I Football Issues Committee, serving as chair of the football committee in 2012-13, his fifth and final year. He had previously served on the baseball committee from 2006-08. 

The Beginning
Heeke was introduced as the Chippewas' athletics director at a press conference Dec. 8, 2005, and took over the reins on Jan. 16, 2006. He replaced Herb Deromedi who retired after 11 years as athletics director and 38-plus years of total service to the university.

During his first 18 months on the job, Heeke was faced with the task of hiring three head coaches for football and both men's and women's basketball. He tabbed Ernie Zeigler in men's basketball, Butch Jones in football and Sue Guevara in women's basketball.

The East Lansing, Mich., native spent 18 years at the University of Oregon, including serving as senior associate athletics director/chief of staff. There he assisted the athletics director with the daily operation of the Ducks' $40 million budget and 17 sports. His primary role was revenue generation through external operations. He also was the direct administrative supervisor for football, men's basketball, women's soccer and softball.

Some of the highlights from his career at Oregon include: developing a creative and profitable marketing and sales partnership with ESPN Regional Television; planning and executing a donor seating plan to fund renovation of the basketball arena; installation and game-day operation of a $3.7 million large-screen video display system and scoreboard in the football stadium; and reorganization of the annual giving program that more than doubled revenues from $3.6 million to $7.6 million initially and currently generates over $15 million annually.

Heeke began his professional career as assistant athletic events coordinator at Michigan State for one year in 1987 before heading to Oregon.

Heeke received a bachelor's degree from Albion College in 1985 and a master's degree from Ohio State University in 1987. At Albion, he was a co-captain of the baseball team and a member of the club hockey team. He was a three-sport athlete at East Lansing High School.

Heeke received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the East Lansing Educational Foundation in 2007.

He and his wife, Liz, have three boys, Ryan, Max and Zach.