Oliver Luck

Oliver Francis Luck (born April 5, 1960) is the Director of Intercollegiate Athletes at West Virginia University, his alma mater. Luck is a retired American football player who spent four seasons in the National Football League (NFL) as a quarterback for the Houston Oilers (1983–1986). He was also the first president and general manager of the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer (MLS). Under his watch, the Dynamo won the MLS Cup in 2006 and 2007.

He is the father of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.

Collegiate career
Luck attended St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, where he was a standout quarterback. He then enrolled at West Virginia University, playing quarterback from 1978–1981. In his freshman season, Luck only had 151 yards passing and five interceptions. As a sophomore in 1979, he passed for 1,292 yards and eight touchdowns, but threw 12 interceptions. He also rushed for 407 yards and five touchdowns, including a career-high 120 yards against Tulane.

In his junior season of 1980, Luck earned first-team Academic All-American honors. Luck's 19 touchdown passes was a school record, while he also added 1,874 yards. As a senior in 1981, he led the Mountaineers to the Peach Bowl where they defeated the Florida Gators by a score of 26–6. Also named Academic All-American for the second consecutive season, Luck threw for a school record 216 completions and 394 attempts to add to his 2,448 yards and 16 touchdowns. He added career-highs 360 passing yards and a school-record 34 completions in a loss to Syracuse that season.

Luck, who was a three-year starter, ended his career with school records of 43 career touchdown passes, 466 completions, and 911 pass attempts. His 5,765 career passing yards currently ranks fourth on the all-time school list. Luck still ranks in the top ten in nearly every career passing category.

Luck was a finalist to be a Rhodes Scholar (but he did not obtain the scholarship), a National Football Foundation Scholar, and a two-time GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American who graduated magna cum laude from WVU in 1982. He was named the team MVP in 1980 and 1981 and won the 1981 Louis D. Meisel Award. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Luck was inducted into the Academic All-America Hall of Fame in 2000.

After graduating from West Virginia, Luck's QB job was filled by Penn State transfer and future NFL Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl winner Jeff Hostetler.

Professional career
Luck was selected with the 17th pick of the second round (44th overall) in the 1982 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers. He was the third quarterback selected, after Art Schlichter (4th to Baltimore) and Jim McMahon (5th to Chicago). As a rookie Luck saw no action. In his second season, the Oilers inserted him at the starting quarterback position, from which he threw eight touchdowns and 13 interceptions, completing 124 of 217 pass attempts. He threw for only 1,375 yards, as the Oilers struggled to a 2–14 record.

In 1984, the Oilers signed Canadian Football League star Warren Moon. Luck played as Moon's back-up for the majority of the season. He completed 22 of 36 pass attempts for 256 yards, two of which were touchdown passes, while having only one pass intercepted. Luck also had some success running the ball: he carried the ball 10 times for 75 yards and scored one touchdown.

In 1985 and 1986, Luck continued to play back-up to Moon. He threw 100 passes in 1985, completing 56 of them with two touchdowns and two interceptions. In 1986, Luck's final season in the NFL, he completed 31 of 60 passes for 341 yards with one touchdown and five interceptions, contributing to an Oilers' passing offense that finished 23rd out of 28 teams.

Post-football career
After retiring from football, Luck received a J.D. from the University of Texas, graduating in 1987 with honors, and he practiced law in Germany. In 1990, he was the Republican nominee for Congress from West Virginia's Second Congressional District, which included his alma mater West Virginia University, but he was defeated by incumbent Democrat Harley Staggers, Jr. An ethical controversy arose after his campaign used a mailing list generated by the non-profit Mountaineer Athletic Club to send a photo of himself as WVU's quarterback, along with a letter from Luck, to over 4000 of the club's contributors. A state Ethics Commission report subsequently found that the list had been generated at Luck's request, and Luck apologized.

In 1991, he became general manager of the Frankfurt Galaxy of the fledgling World League of American Football. He held the post for two years until the league was suspended. Upon its resumption in 1995, he became general manager of the Rhein Fire, and was named league president the following year. Luck held that role until 2000, during which time he oversaw the league's rebranding as NFL Europe, intended to strengthen the connection between the league and its parent, the NFL.

In 2001, Luck was sworn in as Chief Executive Officer of the Houston Sports Authority. In this role he oversaw the operations of the Harris County Houston Sports Authority, the governmental entity created in 1997 to provide the financing, construction and management oversight of the three large sports and entertainment venues in Houston: Minute Maid Park (home of the Houston Astros), Reliant Stadium, (home of the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo), and the new Downtown multi-purpose arena (home of the Houston Rockets and Comets).

Prior to joining the Sports Authority, Luck was a top-ranking executive with the National Football League for more than ten years, where he served as Vice President of Business Development and President and CEO of NFL Europe. In 2005, he was named president of the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer.

On June 27, 2008, Luck was appointed by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin to the West Virginia University Board of Governors, effective July 1. On June 9, 2010, Luck was hired as the athletic director of West Virginia University. Two years later his name surfaced as a potential candidate to fill the open athletic director's slot at Stanford University, where his son Andrew played quarterback and one of his daughters played volleyball. But Luck announced on May 17, 2012, that he was staying at WVU.

During Luck's tenure, the WVU athletic program has made significant changes, including: WVU's move from the Big East Conference to the Big 12 Conference; the resignation of head football coach Bill Stewart and subsequent promotion of Dana Holgorsen to that spot; and the firing of baseball coach Greg Van Zant.

As of October 12, 2012, West Virginia University amended Luck's employment agreement, extending his contract through 2017.

Personal life
Luck is married to the former Kathy Wilson, with whom he has four children: Andrew, Mary Ellen, Emily, and Addison. Andrew played quarterback for Stanford and was the no. 1 draft pick of the 2012 NFL Draft.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Luck is actively involved as a coach for youth sports.