Dr. Richard Duran was elevated to the permanent role of athletic director on June 15, 2020. During his five-year tenure in the chair, UIW Athletics has seen unprecedented achievement. Duran joined UIW as the deputy athletics director responsible for all external functions of the department in October 2017 and was appointed to the interim AD position on Aug. 12, 2019.
Duran oversees more than 150 employees who serve 530+ student-athletes across 25 programs. When Duran took the helm in 2019, he implemented the Three Cs: UIW student-athletes will be Champions in the Classroom, in the Community, and in Competition. UIW Athletics has thrived in all three areas over the past five years.
Duran was instrumental in working with the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) to create sports sponsorships for artistic swimming and men’s and women’s fencing, providing an NCAA-sponsored league where the student-athletes could compete. Under his guidance, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs also transitioned to the MPSF in 2022-23, uniting those five teams in one league for the first time in program history.
Duran also worked with the Ohio Valley Conference to establish men’s soccer as a sponsored sport. This gave the UIW men’s soccer team a home starting with the 2023-24 season.
Additionally, UIW Athletics co-hosted the 2025 NCAA Final Four as well as the entire 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Under Duran’s leadership, UIW Athletics has seen impressive brand engagement. 1.1 million tuned in to watch the football team’s FCS semifinal matchup against North Dakota State in 2022. Most recently, UIW Athletics had more than 2 million impressions and 153,000+ engagements from posts about Cameron Ward’s No. 1 NFL Draft selection, creating an earned media of $324.1 million.
Under Duran’s leadership, UIW Athletics has placed an emphasis on the “student” part of being a student-athlete, celebrating 754 graduates. Additionally, more than 2,065 academic awards have been earned since Duran arrived at UIW, highlighted by 45+ academic All-American honors.
During the 2021-22 academic year, UIW Athletics set back-to-back program records for overall department GPA (outside of COVID-impacted semesters), earning a 3.29 fall GPA and topping that with a 3.34 GPA in the spring. However, the 530+ student-athletes crushed that record in Fall 2024, earning a 3.41 cumulative GPA. The football program has also set records in the classroom, earning a 3.17 team GPA in Spring 2025. This marks the fifth-straight semester the team has had a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA.
UIW Athletics has also led the Southland Conference in Commissioner’s Honor Roll honors in seven of the last eight
semesters.
Four Cardinals have also earned prestigious honors from the SLC office. Two were named Steve McCarty Citizenship Award Winners (2024 and 2025), presented annually for outstanding qualities in citizenship, sportsmanship, leadership, and community / campus service. Two separate student-athletes received the Southland Conference F.L. McDonald Scholarship, the league’s ultimate academic honor for graduating student-athletes
In keeping with the Mission of UIW, the Athletic Department places a heavy emphasis on service. Since Duran’s arrival at the University, UIW student-athletes have completed more than 50,500 community service hours, including a record 6,683 hours during the 2024-25 academic year.
UIW Athletics aims to prepare student-athletes to be the best versions of themselves during their time on campus and beyond. The department has a dedicated life skills coordinator who plans and keeps track of service as well as professional development. This has included more than 7,500 hours of professional development, including a record 2,344 in 2024-25
Succeeding in the classroom and the community are both important, but UIW Athletics has also excelled in competition under Duran’s leadership. The Cardinals have celebrated 19 team conference titles and one conference championship.
UIW Athletics won back-to-back Southland Conference Commissioner’s Cup honors and secured the top spot in the Men’s All-Sports standings (both firsts in department history) in 2021-22 and 2022-23. During the 2021-22 season, UIW came in third in the Women’s All Sports standings, a program best. In comparison, the year before Duran’s arrival, UIW finished No. 10 in the Commissioner's Cup, No. 9 in the Men’s All-Sport standings, and No. 9 in the Women’s All-Sport standings.
The department also earned its highest finish and point total in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings in 2024-25.
Individually, UIW Athletics has had more than 400 all-conference honors, over 65 student-athlete of the year awards, 80+ All-American accolades, and 21 coach of the year recipients.
Under Duran’s leadership and support, football has gone from a team with one win in a single season to a program that has won four conference championships and reached the FCS playoffs four times in the last seven years.
UIW won its first league title in 2018 to advance to the FCS playoffs for the first time in program history. The Cardinals won their second title in 2021, with quarterback Cameron Ward (2025 NFL Draft No. 1 pick) winning the Jerry Rice Award (given yearly to top FCS freshman in the nation).
During the historic 2022 season, UIW amassed 12 wins and a earned trip to the FCS Playoff Semifinals. The team achieved the highest ranking in program history, finishing at No. 3 in the STATS Perform FCS Top 25 Poll and the AFCA Coaches Poll. The team brought home its second national award in as many years when quarterback Lindsey Scott Jr. won the Walter Payton Award (given annually to the best FCS player in the nation).
The program experienced a rebuilding year in 2023 after returning just four starters (second fewest in the nation) from the 2022 season but still finished 9-2 with rankings of No. 11/19. The Cardinals came back stronger in 2024, going undefeated in league play (10-3 overall), winning the SLC title and earning a program-record No. 6 seed in the FCS Playoffs.
Additionally, several sports have had individual conference champions including women’s golf, men’s golf and cross country. Men’s indoor track and field and men’s outdoor track and field have each won three consecutive conference titles (2022, 2023, 2024). Men’s cross country and men’s tennis also won league championships in 2024, while softball had the most wins and best conference finish in program history before reaching the Southland Conference Tournament championship game (2024).
Since he took the helm of UIW Athletics, Dr. Duran has partnered with UIW leadership to ensure the Cardinal student-athletes have support in a holistic manner. UIW Athletics conducted a collaborative Title IX review, to ensure compliance, and worked with University partners to move the UIW Athletics Sports Medicine’s medical decisions under Health Services, thereby ensuring the health and safety of the student-athletes was placed under the best possible care.
In June 2020, Dr. Duran collaborated with student-athletes and the UIW Mission and Ministry office and the provost’s office to gain approval and support for “As One, We Will.” This phrase, created by UIW football’s diversity group, was designed to pull everyone together while promoting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for Athletics. This led to a DEI position being added to the Mission subcommittee of the Board of Trustees, which was filled by a football alumnus.
Under Dr. Duran’s leadership, UIW Athletics has seen great success in external relations operations as well. He renegotiated the contract with Adidas, ensuring a 62% partnership increase. He also increased livestreamed events 144.7% on the UIW Athletics website before securing the equipment needed to stream events to ESPN+ in-house (2022-23).
Since Dr. Duran arrived in the Alamo City, all self-generated revenue categories set records for UIW Athletics, rounding out five consecutive years of external revenue records.
Duran came to UIW in 2017 following a stint at Cal State-LA, a Division II university. Combined with his time as a student-athlete at Division III Whittier College, Duran has spent time at institutions in the Division I (FBS, FCS and non-football), Division II and Division III levels, as well as in a conference office, which has provided a well-rounded experience. Prior to Cal State-LA, Duran had stints at the University of Louisiana Monroe, the University of California, Riverside, the Big West Conference and the Boys and Girls Club of Whittier.
Duran, a Montebello, California, native, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology with a concentration in Sport Management from Whittier College where he was a four-year letterwinner in football. He went on to receive a Master of Arts in Sport Management from the University of San Francisco. He earned his Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership – Higher Education Administration from Gwynedd Mercy University in May 2025.
Podcast Episodes
Minutes with McHale - Feb. 21, 2023
Collegiate Sports Connect - Sept. 28, 2022
A New Gameday Podcast Social - Aug. 19, 2020
1.Question Leadership Podcast - July 28, 2020
Creative Coaching Podcast - June 26, 2020
