The journey of Marcus Manning from a student-athlete at Jennings High School to director of athletics at Maryville University is a story about the importance of family, mentoring, and education.
“From day one they really talked with me about working hard, being humble and being able to communicate with everyone,” he says of his parents, Frank and Gina Manning, who still call Jennings home and who served as his first role models.
His father was one of the first African-American nursing home administrators in the state. His mother worked two full-time jobs: as a dental assistant and as an evening aide at a nursing home. From them, he learned the value of setting goals and sacrificing to reach them.
Manning is opening doors as one of few African-American athletic administrators in the NCAA. He credits a string of coaches along the way who helped provide him a “playbook” on how to find his niche and be successful.
He still keeps in touch with his high school basketball coach, Randy Carter, and remembers his Jennings football coach, Roscoe Dowell, reminding him to “always be grateful for the opportunities you get and try to give back.” Manning often shares their wisdom along with his own when he mentors young people.
Manning earned his BS in business management from Quincy University, where he was a standout football player. Jim Naumovich, who now serves as the Great Lakes Valley Conference commissioner – the NCAA Division II conference in which Maryville competes – was athletics director during Manning’s four years on campus. “He was the first one I called after I graduated,” Manning says. “I asked him what I needed to do become an athletic director, and he gave me a playbook.”
With that advice, Manning enrolled at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and earned his master’s degree in sports administration. He went on to hold jobs in recreation and athletic administration at two universities before serving as director of membership and legislative services for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
When he was offered the job at Maryville University, mentors and friends advised Manning to proceed with caution because the program had just transitioned from NCAA DIII status.
“They told me, ‘It’s bigger than you going back to St. Louis and working at Maryville University. Think about how hard you’ll have to work and sacrifice because it’s about being an athletics director, but it’s also being successful,’” Manning says.
Personal career goals aside, Manning says, “I realized it could mean a lot. I wanted other minorities to see that we can be successful in this role.” (In 2012, nearly 91 percent of NCAA Division II athletics directors in were white.)
And Manning noted that African Americans – including Nina Caldwell, PhD, vice president of student life and dean of students, and Shani Lenore-Jenkins, associate vice president of enrollment – were in positions of leadership at Maryville University.
He accepted the challenge, and the 18 men’s and women’s teams and more than 260 student-athletes he guides have logged numerous achievements, including an individual national wrestling championship, GLVC championship in women’s basketball and the NCAA DII President’s Award for 100 percent student-athlete graduation rate.
Manning is a leader beyond the playing fields. He was recently named to the executive committee for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and to the executive board of the NCAA Division II Athletic Directors Association, and he was honored as the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year in 2013.
