Houston AD Eddie Nuñez mentors during busy Final Four

SAN ANTONIO – Eddie Nuñez has always appeared to have boundless energy. Those who have known the University of Houston athletic director since he was a child remember that he was seemingly in perpetual motion.

As a 6-year-old ballboy for the Miami Senior High basketball team in the 1980s, Nuñez could handle multiple talks while still finding time to take some shots. That energy was evident Friday as Nuñez ran all over San Antonio while still making time to attend the Latino Association of Basketball Coaches’ annual luncheon.

He woke up at 5:30 for his morning workout. By 6 p.m., he had already attended eight events as he took an Uber to a welcome event for UH fans attending the Final Four.

In between, he had breakfast with corporate sponsors, got on a Zoom call with folks back in Houston, met with UH donors, met with Big 12 Conference officials, attended the LABC luncheon and then UH’s practice and media availability sessions at the Alamodome.

‘Providing value to others’

“For me, it’s about always being able to give back and providing value to others,” he says. “Having been to the Final Four as a basketball staff member at the University of Florida, as an athletic administrator at LSU, to now being the athletic director it has been a tremendous experience and one that I treasure.”

Nuñez has always had a knack for multi-tasking. That skill is crucial for athletics directors at major college programs. Nonetheless, nobody would have blamed Nuñez if he had skipped the LABC’s luncheon Friday afternoon at a local hotel a short drive from the site of the Final Four. 

Before UH coach Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars practiced at the Alamodome on the eve of their national semifinal game against Duke, Nuñez was at the LABC luncheon to watch former UCLA AD Dan Guerrero receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

“For someone like Eddie, whose team’s in the Final Four, so he’s got a lot of responsibility with his team and his donors,” UMass head coach Frank Martin said. “To find a window to come here at the same moment it says a lot about who he is and how much he cares about where he came from.”

Eddie Nuñez is a Cuban American from Miami. He embraces his Latino roots and the opportunity to mentor and help the next generation of Latinos to work in sports.

From ballboy to AD

As a former walk-on basketball player at the University of Florida, Nuñez has a special affinity for basketball. That love was evident since he was a ballboy at Miami Senior High when Martin was on the team coached by Nuñez’s uncle Jose “Tiger” Nuñez.

Martin, who led South Carolina to the 2017 Final Four, was Miami Senior High’s head coach when Eddie Nuñez began playing for the school in the early 1990s.

“Eddie was just always, since he was a kid, bouncing off the walls,” Martin said. “You couldn’t keep him off the court.  You couldn’t get him to sit still. 

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“And it’s no surprise that those tendencies he had as a young kid he still has as a leader of people now. His energy, his enthusiasm, his competitiveness, and his willingness to stand up and work everyday it’s no surprise success follows him everywhere he goes.”

Nuñez called Martin in August when he was considering leaving New Mexico for the same job at Houston. Martin remembers telling Nuñez that it would be a good idea to take the Houston job.  

So naturally, perhaps, Martin teased Nuñez when they greeted each other at the LABC luncheon. 

“I said to Eddie, ‘It must be nice. You get a job and you’re at the Final Four parading around with your new job,’” Martin said. “I’m ecstatic for him because he’s earned his way in a business where there’s not a lot of people like him, just a Hispanic guy.

“There’s not too many Hispanics who played basketball back in the ‘90s, and he did. He found a path forward through basketball to open up doors for himself, which now is opening up doors for others.”

Opening doors

Former Florida International men’s basketball coach Sergio Rouco was also an assistant coach at Miami Senior when he first met a young Eddie Nuñez. 

Nuñez is the first AD with a team in the Final Four to attend the LABC event in the decade since they began meeting with six initial members in 2010. More than 100 attended Friday’s luncheon.

“First of all coming here is huge because he’s got so many events at the Final Four when the team’s in it,” Rouco said. “He knows how important it is. … He’s been around basketball and he’s seen the progression of the Hispanic, not only in coaching but in administration.

 “He’s our flagship AD. I’m sure he represents us great. We need more ADs that are Latinos. But Eddie coming here means a lot to the organization. It’s important to him and important to us that he attends.”

Perhaps nobody at the luncheon appreciates Eddie Nuñez’s schedule during the Final Four quite like Guerrero. The former chairman of the NCAA Tournament selection committee spent three decades as an athletics director. He spent the final 18 seasons of his career at UCLA.

Guerrero, who retired in 2020, is the most accomplished Latino AD in NCAA history. The Bruins won 32 national titles over multiple sports under Guerrero’s tenure. Now Guerrero is watching Nuñez and the next generation of Latino athletics administrators make a mark in the profession.

A nod to mentors

“Eddie’s the future of this business in so many ways for Latinos,” Guerrero said. “He’s blazing the trail for a lot of the young professionals that are in this room today. To see him get the opportunity to now be the AD at the University of Houston once again just provides an inspiration for so many.

“It reflects the fact that he cares and it reflects the fact that he realizes that his ascension to where he is is going to have an impact on a lot of people that have a lot of runway in this business that have a chance to do very special things in this business, whether from a coaching standpoint or whether it’s an administrative standpoint. And they’re going to look to Eddie for that leadership.”

Nuñez is humbled by the praise he received from Martin, Rouco and Guerrero.

”I’m honored that those three individuals, who I think so much of and I care for, from Dan to Sergio to Frank, all have not just been mentors and friends, but family,” Eddie Nuñez said. “I am a big believer that to achieve what you strive for in life, you need to surround yourself with great people that are gonna help you be the best you can be. These three and so many others gave me the confidence and the trust to be able to lead by example.”