Cary Groth wasn’t looking for a new job.

After being at NIU to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, coach and act as the athletic director, being a Huskie was all Groth had known.

Perhaps Groth’s roots as a Huskie made her move to a position as athletic director for the University of Nevada at Reno so surprising. With many differences in the two universities, the change for Groth was something she said she didn’t expect.

“It’s something that I didn’t really look for,” Groth said. “Some people called me on the job, I looked into it and it’s a great opportunity.”

According to reports, Groth will receive $220,000 a year at Nevada. Her NIU salary was set at $135,000 for 2004, up 10.6 percent from 2003. Most faculty received only a 3 percent raise.

“It shows the value of a good head hunter,” Nevada President John Lilley said of his hiring Groth.

She was “hunted” for her experience in building NIU’s athletics programs as athletic director for 10 years as well as for her work on Title IX, Lilley said.

Groth will step into a different atmosphere than at NIU, both athletically and economically.

“The state systems are very different,” Groth said. “One thing that was very intriguing to me was they were able to work together with the state and local community and fundraising as far as developing new facilities. As far as Northern, you can’t really use state money.”

Nevada’s basketball team won the Western Athletic Conference tournament last weekend, earning its first NCAA tournament berth in 19 years.

The Wolf Pack’s basketball team’s average home-game attendance was 8,068 for this season – almost tripling NIU’s average of 2,788.

“We’re in a whole different environment,” said Chris Ault, Nevada’s former athletic director. “We’re one of only two major college universities in Nevada. We don’t share the publicity with anybody. The environment here is that we’re the front-page story.”

Ault accepted an offer to go back to coaching football at Nevada, leaving the athletic director position vacant.

“It’s something I offered him, and two hours later, we had a deal,” Lilley said. “Cary [Groth] was clearly his choice, as was the overwhelming support of the whole athletic staff. He’ll be very supportive of her.”

Ault said he wasn’t planning on coaching but hopes to rebuild the program. The team posted a 6-6 record in 2003 but still averaged 22,258 per home game in a stadium that holds about 31,000 fans.

NIU’s 10-2 football team averaged 23,575 for home attendance.

“We get a lot of coverage out of the media, as we are the only sports in town,” said Jack Kuestermeyer, Nevada assistant director of media services. “It’s all college. They don’t care who they’re playing; they’re extremely excited.”