Key moments in Mike Alden’s MU career

▪ July 16, 1998: Alden is introduced as Missouri’s 15th athletic director. Alden accepts a three-year, $150,000-a-year contract and takes over a program with an annual budget of $13.7 million.

▪ Sept. 3, 1998: Alden says Hearnes Center is “tired” and deciding whether to build a new basketball arena is a priority.

▪ April 1, 1999: Legendary MU basketball coach Norm Stewart retires.

▪ April 7, 1999: Alden introduces Duke assistant Quin Snyder as Stewart’s replacement. The day before in Kansas City, Alden gives a second interview to Tulsa coach Bill Self, who leaves without a job offer.

▪ Nov. 9, 2000: The University of Missouri Board of Curators approve financial plans for a new $75 million basketball arena to be built south of Hearnes Center.

▪ Nov. 30, 2000: Gary Pinkel is introduced as football coach Larry Smith’s successor.

▪ July 12, 2001: Missouri Gov. Bob Holden approves a $35 million state commitment to build MU’s new basketball arena.

▪ March 30, 2002: After taking MU to its third Elite Eight in program history in his third season on the job, Quin Snyder declines an offer from Washington to stay in Columbia.

▪ Dec. 20, 2002: Alden gives Snyder another contract extension, through April 2008, which is worth slightly more than $1 million per year over the next five years.

▪ Jan. 17, 2003: MU point guard Ricky Clemons is charged with felonious domestic assault.

▪ March 22, 2003: On the same day Snyder’s Tigers finish their fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, The Star reports his program has committed more than a dozen NCAA violations.

▪ Sept. 25, 2003: NCAA delivers a “notice of inquiry” to MU regarding its men’s basketball program.

▪ Oct. 11, 2003: After two straight losing seasons, Pinkel takes down his first top-10 opponent, a 41-24 home win over No. 10 Nebraska. The Tigers finish 8-5 and reach the Independence Bowl.

▪ Dec. 10, 2003: Jailhouse phone conversations involving Clemons rock the campus. In the tapes, Clemons alleges he received money from Missouri basketball coaches; Carmento Floyd, wife of the system president, says her husband didn’t support Alden; and Amy Stewart, wife of MU associate A.D. Ed Stewart, tells Clemons she wanted to “scare” his former girlfriend, a witness in the NCAA investigation of MU.

▪ May 10, 2004: MU gets faxed copy of NCAA report, alleging one major violation: Payment of $250 to Clemons by men’s basketball assistant coach Tony Harvey. Quin Snyder remains basketball coach but assistant coaches Lane Odom and Harvey resign.

▪ July 2, 2004: Missouri self-imposes two years’ probation and other sanctions but maintains Snyder did not intentionally commit any infractions. In November, the NCAA puts the Tigers on three years’ probation and hands out a one-year ban on any member of the MU coaching staff from off-campus recruiting. MU avoids a postseason ban.

▪ Nov. 19, 2004: A month after 22-year-old Paige Laurie cut the ribbon on Missouri’s new basketball facility, the Paige Sports Arena, she is accused to have paid to have schoolwork done for her at the University of Southern California, ABC’s “20/20” reports. Laurie is the daughter of billionaires Bill and Nancy Laurie, who donated $25 million for the $75 million arena and secured naming rights for the building. The Lauries later give back their naming rights and the building is renamed Mizzou Arena.

▪ July 12, 2005: Missouri redshirt freshman linebacker Aaron O’Neal, 19, dies following a conditioning workout. O’Neal’s family later files a wrongful-death lawsuit.

▪ March 16, 2005: Mizzou’s basketball season ends in the first round of the NIT for the second year in a row.

▪ Feb. 12, 2006: Missouri accepts Snyder’s resignation before the Tigers’ game against Kansas State. Alden denies that he had instructed broadcaster Gary Link, his special assistant, to inform Snyder that he would be fired at the end of the season. MU offers Snyder $574,000 in settlement. Both the MU chancellor and the university system launch investigations into the resignation.

▪ Feb. 20, 2006: Alden says he sent Link to ask Snyder if he “might want to step away.” An independent investigation released a month later reveals Link’s decision to deliver an ultimatum was made on his own.

▪ March 24, 2006: Stewart publicly questions whether Alden should keep his job.

▪ March 26, 2006: A news conference to introduce Mike Anderson as Snyder’s replacement is held off while the Board of Curators determine Alden’s future. Alden doesn’t learn of the meeting until he arrives home after walking his dogs. He keeps his job and Anderson is introduced.

▪ May 4, 2006: A University of Missouri systems curator suggests greater supervision needed to be given to campus athletics. In July, the curators put a five-year maximum on contracts and a limit on buyout clauses.

▪ Nov. 25, 2006: Pinkel’s Tigers beat KU 42-17 and head to the Sun Bowl, their first of a school-record seven consecutive bowl games.

▪ Sept. 2007: Alden signs a two-year contract extension that will boost his annual pay $75,000 to $525,000 through 2012. Alden’s previous contract ran through 2010 at $450,000 per year.

▪ June 30, 2007: Annual athletic revenue hits $56 million.

▪ Nov. 24, 2007: Mizzou reaches No. 1 in the college football polls after beating No. 2 Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium.

▪ June 2008: In the 2007-08 school year, 16 of Missouri’s 20 athletic teams qualified for postseason, including football, which won the Big 12 North again. Seven Tigers teams ranked in the national top 25 according to the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate and Missouri’s APR led the Big 12.

▪ Nov. 27, 2008: Alden and KU agree to keep the Border War football game at Arrowhead through 2012.

▪ March 12, 2009: A court approves Missouri’s $2 million settlement to the father and mother of late football player Aaron O’Neal.

▪ Aug. 6, 2009: Alden agrees to five-year contract extension through 2017 with an annual base salary of $287,375 and guaranteed annual income of $537,375.

▪ May 10, 2010: MU begins internal discussions about joining the Big Ten Conference.

▪ June 11, 2010: Nebraska joins the Big Ten and Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas are reported to be interested in joining Colorado in joining the Pac-10, but the Big 12 stays in tact with 10 teams for the 2010-11 season.

▪ Sept. 1, 2010: Running back Derrick Washington is banished from the team even though there has been no resolution made public regarding a Class C felony charge against Washington for deviate sexual assault.

▪ March 23, 2011: Basketball coach Mike Anderson leaves for Arkansas and Frank Haith is hired from the University of Miami.

▪ June 30, 2011: Annual athletic revenue hits $64 million.

▪ Sept. 2, 2011: Oklahoma president David Boren said his university won’t be a “wallflower” in college sports realignment, a remark that alerted Missouri to more instability in the Big 12.

▪ Sept. 3, 2011: Alden, Chancellor Brady Deaton and University of Missouri system interim president Steve Owens and general counsel Phil Hoskins meet on the roof deck at Memorial Stadium before the Tigers’ season opener against Miami (Ohio) and begin discussions about leaving the Big 12.

▪ Nov. 6, 2011: At a news conference/pep rally on campus, Missouri is formally introduced by commissioner Mike Slive as the SEC’s newest member.

▪ March 10, 2012: In MU’s final Big 12 tournament, the Tigers take the title at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, their second Big 12 tourney title in four years.

▪ Nov. 2012: Suspended guard Mike Dixon Jr. leaves the MU basketball team after two sexual assault allegations against him were uncovered, though no charges were filed in either case.

▪ Feb. 19, 2013: Frank Haith is notified of his allegations from his days in the Nevin Shapiro extra benefits scandal from his days as Miami’s coach.

▪ Oct. 22, 2013: After a 2 1/2-year investigation into the Miami scandal, he NCAA hands Haith a five-game ban, which he serves the first five games of the 2013-14 season. “I do not agree with the findings,” said Haith, but he does not fight the suspension.

▪ March 1, 2014: ESPN reports Missouri did not investigate or report an alleged rape, possibly by members of the football team. The victim, Sasha Menu Courey, a member of Missouri’s swim team, committed suicide in 2011, a year after the alleged incident.

▪ March 23, 2014: After losing in the NIT second round, Haith leaves MU. Kim Anderson, a former player and assistant under Stewart, is later hired.

▪ April 11: Star wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham was dismissed from the football team after his latest arrest, the latest off-field incidents that brought unwanted national attention to Missouri. After Green-Beckham’s dismissal, Alden called a news conference to address the off-field problems. “The (Missouri) logo never comes off,” Alden said. “It never comes off.”

▪ Dec. 5: Missouri plans to build a new south end-zone complex at Memorial Stadium that is expected to include new football offices, a weight room, training room and a new locker room. The project also could include new premium seating and set the stage for an eventual upper deck and enclosure of the south end of Memorial Stadium, increasing seating capacity to roughly 80,000.

▪ Thursday: Figures obtained by The Star show MU reported athletic revenue of $83 million in 2013-14, the Tigers’ second season in SEC.

This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 11:15 PM with the headline "Key moments in Mike Alden’s MU career."