By Matt Newbery

PITTSBURG, Kan. -- Chuck Broyles has retired after 20 seasons as head football coach at Pittsburg State University, it was announced Wednesday afternoon (Dec. 2) during a news conference at PSU’s Wilkinson Alumni Center.

His retirement takes affect immediately.

University president Dr. Steve Scott also announced he has placed Broyles on administrative leave from his position as the school’s director of athletics, with pay. He will remain on leave until disposition of charges stemming from his Nov. 24 arrest by the Galena (Kan.) Police Department on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Scott said assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Tim Beck has been named as acting head coach, and associate director of athletics and head track and field/cross country coach Russ Jewett will step in as acting AD while Broyles is on leave.

“This decision ensures that we will have the leadership in place for the football program during this critical recruiting season,” Scott said of the move to make Beck acting head coach.

“At a meeting yesterday with Coach Broyles, I notified him that he is now on administrative leave with pay,” Scott continued. “I have full confidence that Russ is up to this task. I met with him yesterday (Dec. 1) to review my expectations of him.”

Broyles indicated that it was his decision to retire, and that he’s talked about his future not only with Scott but former president Dr. Tom Bryant over the past couple of years preparing for this day.

“I have always said that I will never get fired from a job, because I’ll be smart enough to quit first, and now it‘s time for me to do something else.” Broyles said.

“You through a lot of different emotions (making this decision) -- the way I feel right now is I don’t feel real good. I watched Bobby Bowden (recently retired Florida State head football coach) last night. He’s been at the same school for 34 years, he’s 80 years old -- and hell I’m retiring and I’m 62 and only been here 22 years!”

The president also said that the only affect Broyles’ arrest may have had on the retirement decision was the timing.

“We would have been here a week later,“ Scott said. “I think it just changed the dynamics a little bit in terms of timing, but I don’t think it changed the outcome.“

Scott said he would move quickly to secure a permanent selection of a head football coach, but offered no timeline during the press conference.

“We do need to move expeditiously,” the president said. “We’ve got players we want committed to us -- this is a great place to play football, we’ve got athletes that we’d like to see continue with us -- and we hope they do, we’ve got great staff. So I know there is pressure on us and expectations of us to move quickly.

“We’ll also engage people -- I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone the last few days, talking to people, listening to people… trying to get a really good sense of where this program needs to go. “

In the wake of the football program’s first sub-.500 record since 1977, Scott also sees the need to find a successor who can get things back to where the program was making consecutive trips to the playoffs and winning conference championships.

“How do we get back to that point? That’s going to be on my mind -- how do you as quickly as possible get back to the kinds of expectations and kinds of outcomes that we are used to at Pittsburg State,” Scott said.

The president also announced the athletics director would become a full-time position for the upcoming fiscal year, separate from a coaching position.

“For the past 12 years, we have operated under a combined model, with Coach Broyles occupying both positions,” Scott said. “In this era of increasing pressures, complexities and responsibilities for these two crucial roles, I believe the student-athletes, the athletic programs and the university will be best served by having two individuals fill these positions.”

The separation of the two jobs should not be a fiscal burden on the university during a period where budgets are being slashed due to state funding cuts, according to the president. That’s because the athletics budgets have maintained line items for both positions during Broyles’ tenure in a dual role.

“Sometimes you lines in the budget that you don’t use -- but you have money on them,” Scott said. “In this case, we’ve had both an athletic director position and a head football coach position that both had salaries on them.

“Coach Broyles’ preference probably would have been that he got both of those salaries -- and that would have been a good deal. Probably many days, he earned both of those salaries but the fact is we only paid one of those salaries out. So there will be no increase to the budget to split the positions because we’ll be using lines in the budget that already have dollars on them ”

Scott estimated there was approximately $450,000 which had not been utilized from the athletics budget over the past 12 years. Broyles served in the dual role as head football coach and director of athletics since December of 1996.

Broyles posted a 198-47-2 record in 20 seasons guiding the Gorillas, coaching them to nine Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association championships, 15 NCAA Division II playoff appearances, four national championship game appearances -- winning it in 1991.

He came back to his alma mater in 1988 as defensive coordinator under then-head coach Dennis Franchione, and took over as head coach following Franchione’s departure to Texas State after the 1989 season. Broyles also had stints as a student coach in 1969 and graduate assistant in 1972 at PSU.

Broyles had two stints as defensive coordinator at Missouri S&T (then Missouri-Rolla) from 1974-82 and 1986-87 before coming back to Pittsburg State. He also was head coach at Stockton, Mo., High School (1973) and an assistant at both Bishop Carroll High School in Wichita, Kan. (1970-71) and Miami, Okla., High School (1983-85).

In his role as AD, Broyles oversaw major growth in the school’s annual scholarship and funds drive -- including a record $350,000 raised in 2008. The department also has experienced several major facility enhancements during his tenure, led by nearly $10 million in improvements to Carnie Smith Stadium.