STILLWATER, Okla. — In his first three years as Langston University’s athletic director, Patric Simon has led the athletic department to something that the university has never received — a Learfield Sports Director’s Cup for top Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the NAIA.

The Langston athletic program received the trophy at the beginning of last school year for its success during the 2009-2010 athletic season – Simon’s second year as Langston athletic director.

“You talk about that trophy as an athletic director, that means your program is outstanding,” Simon said. “And sometimes, you have to be realistic that you may not ever get there. And boom, it just popped up and we got it.”

A long and heartbreaking journey led Simon to Langston University.

Prior to spending time in Pennsylvania as an athletic director at Cheyney University, Simon and his late wife worked at Lincoln University — an HBCU in Jefferson City, Mo. — until his wife passed away.

“I was the A.D. at Lincoln and my wife was the vice president at her alma mater, a dream come true getting to bring her home and kind of live your life out until you retire. But then she got diagnosed with colon cancer and died,” Simon said. “I was taking full care of her and just talking about it still makes me a little emotional. I had to resign my position to help take care of her.”

While at Cheyney, Simon said he became homesick and decided to move back to the Midwest where he’s now a little more than six hours from his family in Jefferson City, Mo.

“I started missing my home. I was only popping in like it was a resort,” Simon said. “And then this job came open and it was only six-and-a-half to seven hours from Jefferson City. So I applied and I got it and we’ve done some tremendous things here in the three years.”

The last year has been unique, in a way, for the men’s programs at Langston. There was a dip in men’s basketball, while the football program made its second straight appearance in the NAIA playoffs for just the second time in school history.

But both programs had a changing of the guards this summer.

Out is 12-year basketball coach Greg Webb and now-former football coach Greg Johnson (who decided to return to teaching), and in are LU alum Nigel Thomas as the new basketball coach and interim head football coach Mickey Joseph, who was promoted from assistant coach after Johnson stepped aside.

“Sometimes a program just needs a good shot in the arm because you can get stagnant and complacent,” Simon said. “But I think this shot in the arm is something we’re going to need, especially in basketball. And with coach Mickey, I think we can go further into the playoffs with his skills.”

The state of Langston’s women’s programs are at an all-time high.

The women’s basketball program reached the NAIA National Championship Tournament for the third consecutive season — and earned its first victory in the national tournament in the three-year coaching career of Jerome Willis by topping 2008 NAIA national champion Vanguard University in the opening round.

The coach that replaced Donnita Drain, who left to become coach at Grambling State, was chosen as the Red River Athletic Conference’s Coach of the Year. The Lady Lions were led by first-team NAIA All-American selection Stephanie Madden, who averaged 18.6 points and 12.6 rebounds per game in her senior season.

The cross country and track and field programs — both women’s and men’s — also had successful campaigns under longtime coach James Hilliard Jr. The women’s cross country team won the conference championship last season for the first time.

The biggest improvement in the women’s programs came in softball, which completed its fifth season in school history. Under first-year head coach Quinton Morgan, who was coaching on an interim basis, the Lady Lions advanced to the Red River Athletic Conference postseason tournament for the first time.

“Coach Morgan had a great year taking the softball program to its first playoffs — and we had been awful,” said Simon, who is known around the department as ‘Pop’ because he’s always around the programs.

Athletic success isn’t the only thing Simon is focused on. The fourth-year athletic director also has been preaching academics. Last year’s athletic department GPA was 2.67, with softball leading the program with a 3.15, and not a single program is below 2.40.

“I’m an old high school coach, I have the philosophy of ‘no pass, no play.’ I don’t know what’s so difficult about that — if you don’t go to class, you don’t play,” Simon said. “A lot coaches’ philosophies are different — they just want to win. Now you may have won with that kid, but you also lost with him because he’s going to be out of a degree with no more eligibility. We want to make sure to take care of the total athlete.”

With Langston athletics on the upswing, Simon said fundraising has stayed strong even during the recession.

“Our fundraising is up. Now, we don’t have a Boone Pickens, but we do the best we can with the people we have,” Simon said. “Our booster clubs are tremendous, and I feel that we’ve cultivated our donors well. You have to knock on wood to hope that it stays this way. We’re blessed right now.”

While Simon has been able to work his magic with the budget given to him, he does have dreams of how great the athletic department could be if they had the backing of an Oklahoma State athletic department.

“I’d really like to see what I could do with something like up in Stillwater — if I had a lot of money and hire who you wanted,” Simon said. “I would one day really like to see what I could do with something like that. That’s just kind of mind boggling.”

In his fourth year at the helm of the LU athletic department, Simon expects nothing less than similar results to his second year in the position, which led to the Director’s Cup.

“All that’s left for us now, is a national championship in some sport,” Simon said. “And that’s never happened here. At least not yet. And I think we’re close.”