Each Monday of the fall semester, we’ll be bringing you three different “Getting to Know Them” profiles on coaches, athletic administrators and athletic trainers at Slippery Rock to introduce you to the folks behind the scenes here at The Rock. Next up, we check in with director of athletics, Paul Lueken. 

QUICK BIO
Paul Lueken took over as the director of athletics at Slippery Rock in August of 1994. Just last week, Lueken announced that he will retire from his role at the University on Jan 1, 2021 after more than 26 years. Slippery Rock athletics have thrived under Lueken, winning 39 PSAC titles, 11 individual national championships and appearing in numerous NCAA postseason tournaments. Under Lueken, the SRU athletic scholarship fund grew from just over $300,000 to more than $1.1 million awarded annually. Significant facility improvements have made Slippery Rock athletics a top Division II program and have proved vital toward cementing SRU’s importance in Butler County. More importantly than the athletic success, SRU student-athletes have excelled in academic performance. SRU leads all schools in the Atlantic Region and ranks sixth in Division II in the total number of Academic All-Americans, has had 11 PSAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honorees and 69 PSAC Top 10 honorees during Lueken’s tenure. The thousands of SRU student-athletes since 1994 have recorded a collective average GPA of 3.064. 

IN HIS WORDS

Q: What’s the first concert you went to? What’s the most recent concert you went to?
A: Charlie Daniels Band was my first concert. REO Speedwagon was my most recent. 

Q: What was your favorite subject in school? Why?=
A: Math. I wasn’t a big reader in college and I like working with numbers. 

Q: What was your first job growing up? 
A: I mowed lawns and then worked for a brick layer and then a house contractor. 

Q: When did you know you wanted to go into a career in collegiate athletics?
A: I worked in college in the field house and assisted the equipment room supervisor and athletic facility coordinator. It was all hands-on experience, from mopping floors, lining fields, laundry and setting up for games. 

Q: What was the last book you read? 
A: I’m not a big book reader, but have two on my nightstand to read, Sting Ray Afternoon, and Nights in White Castle. I heard they were both good reads on growing up in my generation. 

Q: What’s your all-time favorite movie?  
A: Hoosiers.

Q: How do you relax?
A: Time at home with the family, watching sports on TV, golf with friends.

Q: Tell us about your family.
A: I’m blessed to be married to Donna and together we have four adult children, Adam, Tyler, Hannah and Lindsey. Adam is married to Jessica and has a two-year old daughter, Peyton, who steals the show right now. Hannah is married to Trevor. We also have a dog, Bentley, and two grand-dogs, Han and Tucker. We all get along so well and it’s a lot of fun at family gatherings. 

Q: What’s your favorite meal?
A: Pretty much anything with chicken.

Q: What meal/dish/item are you best at cooking?
A: I can grill meat pretty well. 

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant? What do you order there? 
A: Most folks would say Subway, because I used to go there a lot, but actually Olive Garden and North Country Brewery are pretty good. I like the eggplant parmesan and sandwiches with sweet potato fries. 

Q: What was your first car? What’s your dream car? 
A: My first car was a 1973 red Ford Mustang. Dream car would be a Chevy Tahoe or Silverado.

Q: What artists and/or songs on your current most-listened to playlist?
A: I listen to 70’s music and country. 

Q: Favorite current TV show? Favorite TV show of all-time? 
A: Yellowstone is my favorite current show. All-time is a tough one, since I’m older, and watched a lot shows when I was growing up. I have a lot of favorites, but probably right now I would say, Bluebloods. 

Q: What’s the best advice you ever received and who did it come from?
A: Save as much as you can now and live within your means so you can enjoy retirement! From my father. 

Q: What’s your favorite season/type of weather? 
A: I like early summer, with mild temperatures. Everything is blooming and alive. 

Q: When you go grocery shopping, are you the “Make a List” person or the “Just Wing It” person?
A: I do both. 

Q: What was your favorite or most memorable vacation?
A: A summer trip with my wife visiting the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. It was awesome. 

Q: Where is one place you haven’t visited yet, but you definitely plan to?
A: The state of Maine.

Q: Are you a tech savvy person?
A: Good enough to get by. 

Q: Describe your perfect day off.
A: Golf in the early morning, followed by a relaxing evening with my wife and some of our family drops by to have dinner. 

Q: What is your biggest fear?
A: Losing a loved one! 

Q: Who is your hero?
A: My Father.

Q: Can you sing?
A: Not bad if it’s the right song. LOL.

Q: What is/would be your go-to karaoke song? 
A: “The Gambler.”

Q: You can only eat one thing the rest of your life, what is it?
A: Ice Cream.

Q: Fly or drive for a long trip?
A: Fly.

Q: How did you decide on your kids names or pet names? 
A: Collaborative with wife for kids, and we let the kids pick the dog’s name.

Q: How many and what kind of pets do you have?
A: We have a Yorky-Poodle named Bentley that is nine years old.

Q: Cats or dogs?
A: Dogs.

Q: Is a hot dog a sandwich?
A: Yes.

Q: Does pineapple belong on pizza?
A: Absolutely.

Q: Sheetz or WaWa? Why? 
A: Sheetz, because we don’t have WaWa in Western, Pennsylvania.

Q: What’s the last TV show you binged watched?
A: “Away” on Netflix

Q: Is there a professor you had a class with in college that you still remember? 
A: Several actually. Dr. Bill Fishback was my math professor and advisor at Earlham College. He was brilliant and so down to earth, and Dr. Joseph Hoy, a sports administration professor at St. Thomas University, as he led me in the direction to work in college athletics. 

Q: How long can you go without looking at your phone?
A: Not long, I’m addicted. 

Q: What was the last app you downloaded on your phone? What is your most-used app?
A: Last app was Ebay. Most used is The Score.

Q: What’s one game show or reality show you could go on that you think you could win? 
A: Holey Moley would be fun, but I probably wouldn’t win, because I would be laughing too hard. 

Q: Retirement destination? 
A: Slippery Rock for now, since it’s close to all of our children, grandchildren and friends.

To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official athletic communication accounts on Twitter (@Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).