The DePaul University Board of Trustees has approved a contract extension for DePaul Vice President and Director of Athletics DeWayne Peevy. The extension retains Peevy as the leader of DePaul Athletics through at least June 30, 2027.
"DeWayne was one of the first people I met when I joined the DePaul community last year. It quickly became clear that his vision for athletics and DePaul as a whole will elevate our entire university," said DePaul President Robert L. Manuel. "I'm pleased the board agreed with my recommendation to extend DeWayne's multiyear contract. I look forward to our continued work together as we develop partnerships within our university community, enhance student engagement, grow our national visibility, and invest further in our shared success."
Peevy, who just completed his third year as Director of Athletics, was named to the position in August 2020. He was added to the President's Cabinet and elevated to Vice President and Director of Athletics in July 2021.
"On behalf of Allison and our family, I would like to thank President Manuel and DePaul's Board of Trustees for their confidence, trust, and support," Peevy said. "I am humbled by how much we have accomplished together in just a short amount of time and energized when I think about DePaul's future. Our work here is not even close to complete. I look forward to continuing working with our students, coaches, faculty, and staff to raise the national prominence of DePaul, develop an engaging and rewarding campus atmosphere, further our mission, and continue to enhance our self-generated revenues to benefit all of DePaul. I am incredibly proud to be at DePaul and leading the Blue Demons towards historic growth and success."
A 26-year veteran in intercollegiate athletics with prior experience at the Gulf South Conference, Southeastern Conference, and the University of Kentucky, Peevy was selected to lead the Blue Demons' athletics department for his expertise in fundraising, strategic planning, revenue growth, media relations, and basketball operations. In the summer of 2021, Peevy announced a broad vision for the future of DePaul Athletics known as the DREAM BIG Strategic Plan—a comprehensive five-year roadmap for the department. The plan calls on DePaul to build a championship culture and become the premier program in the BIG EAST Conference while enhancing the Blue Demon's external outreach and footprint within Chicago.
Upon his arrival in Chicago, Peevy began a comprehensive department-wide restructuring, spanning 16 months, which included the addition of several new positions, a review of all job descriptions, development of a new senior and executive leadership team, realignment of sport oversight responsibilities, and elevation of several roles to ensure a dedicated focus in strategic and emerging business areas.
Peevy has been steadfast in expanding health and wellness resources available to DePaul student-athletes. In August 2021, he hired the department's first-ever Associate Athletics Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to develop DEI curriculum and programming and conduct an equity audit to evaluate practices and policies that impact inclusion. In August 2022, Peevy further added new student-support roles—an Associate Athletics Director for Health and Wellness, a Sports Nutritionist (RDN), and two additional athletic trainers to support student-athlete wellbeing. He developed a new division within the Athletics Department—the Student-Athlete Experience Division—tasked with connecting all educational programming provided for student-athletes under one umbrella to provide a cohesive, scaffolded, and inclusive experience.
Furthering his commitment to fostering an elite, championship experience for all 215+ student-athletes, and 15 varsity sports programs at DePaul, Peevy paved the way for the scheduled replacement of the Wish Field turf playing surface, and the recent announcement of a capital fundraising campaign aimed at advancing two projects—the modernization of the Sullivan Athletics Center and McGrath-Phillips Arena, and the constructions of a new, dedicated basketball practice facility.
Peevy continues to grow self-generated funding through record fundraising efforts. In his first year, Peevy achieved the fourth-best fundraising year in the department's history, raising $3.05M, and set a single-day fundraising record through the Blue Demon Challenge of $1M. The following year, he surpassed these totals, raising $4.07M within the fiscal year, and setting a Blue Demon Challenge record of $3.3M. Looking ahead, Peevy is challenging the department to grow philanthropic giving to surpass the department's current three-best fundraising years, which have each been tied to capital projects.
Peevy's ardent focus on ticket sales and revenue growth resulted in the men's basketball program's first sellout of Wintrust Arena and its highest season ticket renewal rate in the history of the arena. Additional records set during his tenure include the women's basketball program's highest-attended regular-season game, the men's soccer program's first capacity crowd, and the women's volleyball program and softball program's highest ticket sales revenue in school history. Through the DePaul Athletics Ticket Office, Peevy initiated digital ticketing and scanning at all DePaul Athletics venues, modernized ticketing technology at Wintrust Arena, and reimagined the pricing structure for each ticketed sport to allow for a more dynamic pricing model and modernized ticket packages that meet the needs of today's consumer.
Peevy also piloted the Blue Demons towards innovation in the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) space by executing several new partnerships and leading strategic investments to support student-athletes as they pursue NIL opportunities. Notably, Peevy led interdisciplinary partnerships with DePaul University's award-winning Driehaus College of Business and College of Communication to explore diverse learning opportunities that explore the intersection of athletics and business. Peevy inked a pioneering partnership with INFLCR—the nation's leading NIL brand-building platform—to allow DePaul to be among only a handful of programs in the nation to offer INFLCR's full suite of brand-building and content products to student-athletes.
Under Peevy's leadership, DePaul further secured the resources necessary to fully fund scholarships for all 15 sports to the NCAA maximum allowance—a total increase of 10.1 scholarships for Blue Demon student-athletes. In 2021, a school record of 88% of student-athletes were named to the BIG EAST All-Academic Team for their academic excellence, and in April 2022, the department launched DePaulBlueDemons.com/Academics to showcase the academic achievements of Blue Demon student-athletes.
Peevy initiated DePaul Athletics' brand modernization initiative, logo updates, and the resurgence of the iconic Billy Blue Demon vintage logo. In August 2021, Peevy hired an Associate AD for Merchandise and Licensing to enhance the selection and availability of Blue Demon merchandise and apparel in the local and national market. Since then, DePaul has seen a 43% increase in royalties and the highest gross merchandise sales in department history through the addition of several key licensees and national retail placements, including the department's first Chicagoland apparel placements in Dick's Sporting Goods and Target.
The athletics department has made significant strides in advancing its strategic and corporate partnerships, national visibility, and digital presence under Peevy's leadership. Peevy commissioned a complete redesign of DePaul's webpage, DePaulBlueDemons.com, the launch of the official DePaul Blue Demons app, featuring live statistics, score updates, and a gamified check-in experience at home events, and initiated a multi-year partnership with JMI Sports to serve as the Blue Demons multimedia rights partner, focused on increasing DePaul's sponsorship revenues. During his tenure, the Blue Demons have seen record television viewership growth for both its basketball programs and enhanced live streaming and broadcast capabilities for DePaul soccer, softball, and volleyball. In August 2023, under Peevy's leadership, the Blue Demons announced an innovative, multi-year broadcast partnership with the Marquee Sports Network to enhance the regional viewership and exposure of DePaul's women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, and softball sporting events.
Peevy further prioritized a focus on community engagement by launching the "Taste of DePaul Athletics" summer tour in June 2022, in which DePaul Athletics hosted activations at numerous Chicago events and festivals, including the Jonquil Park Fun Fest, Lincoln Park Health and Wellness Weekend, Chicago Pride Parade, Sundays on State, South Loop Farmer's Market, and more. In addition, he initiated a partnership with Laureus USA to become a member of Sport for Good Chicago—a coalition of more than 80 local organizations that seek to improve access to, and equity of, youth sports throughout the city and provide youth development training for coaches.
In addition, Peevy is distinctively committed to the university's shared governance process and meets regularly with leadership from DePaul's Faculty Council, Staff Council, and the Student Government Association, in addition to the Strategic Resource Allocation Committee (SRAC) to foster transparency, consistent communication, and dialogue.
"Our academic enterprise and faculty are unrivaled nationally," Peevy said. "It's my responsibility to ensure there is a DePaul hat on every prospective student's table when they're looking to apply for college—and I'm not just talking about student-athletes. I have a responsibility to use DePaul Athletics' strong media value and exposure to build our university's national visibility and reputation to make sure everyone knows we are an option. That's not a responsibility I take lightly."
Peevy serves as the ninth director of athletics in DePaul history. Peevy received his bachelor of business administration degree in accounting from the University of Montevallo and earned his master's degree at the University of Kentucky/University of Louisville Executive MBA program in May 2021. He and his wife, Allison, have two children: Kaitlyn and Braden.
