Wheeler Brown out as JSU athletic director

Tyler Cleveland
Mississippi Clarion Ledger
Wheeler Brown was director of athletics for Jackson State for exactly two years.

Wheeler Brown is out as Jackson State's director of athletics.

The university informed Brown of its decision to relieve him of his duties Friday afternoon, according to a source with direct knowledge of the events.

Brown was announced as director of athletics exactly two years ago and had one year remaining on a three-year contract.

He inherited a tumultuous situation after the departure of former athletic director Vivian Fuller and had a similarly tumultuous tenure in his two years on the job.

The department was forced to shutter both its women's and men's golf programs, and the jury is still out on Brown's sole major hire — Tiger football coach Tony Hughes. Hughes was considered a major coup for JSU upon his arrival, considering his wealth of major college coaching experience (albeit as an assistant), but is 6-16 in two seasons.

According to multiple sources, Brown was offered an alternative job inside the athletic department that would have paid him less money and made him an at-will employee instead of him having a contract. He declined.

The Jackson State athletic department had the third-smallest budget in the 10-team Southwestern Athletic Conference, with a total operating budget of $7.6 million.

That’s nearly $1 million more than Alcorn State ($6.75 million), which ranked ninth in the league, and $3.3 million more than Mississippi Valley State ($4.29 million), which was last.

Brown admitted some frustration over the department's fiscal situation in July, when USA Today published its annual report on all the Division-1 school's budgets.

“To say that it’s not tough would be telling a tale,” Brown said. “We do what we can with what we have to work with. You have to look at things like scheduling regionally, look at stretching your uniform budget as far as you can. Just try to find creative ways to get things done.”

The university's head of communications Maxine Greenleaf declined to comment, saying the university does not comment on personnel changes.