the UH AD search (resulting in Dave Matlin)

[4/29/15] Matlin prepares for his first day on the job
[4/26/15] Ben Jay is still a UH fan

[4/11/15] Dave Matlin is in a curious netherworld
[4/11/15] Matlin's salary set at $290,016 ($24,168 a month).

[3/30/15] Matlin looking to schedule for football bowl eligibility
[3/29/15] Dave Matlin was nominated by Ben Jay

[3/28/15] Amanda Paterson has gained the administration's ear

[3/27/15] Matlin warmed up to the challenge

[3/26/15] Persistence paid off for Matlin
Amemiya has a lot of aloha
Benjy Taylor will apply
The fingerprints of Warren Haruki

[3/25/15] Hawaii Bowl executive director David A. K. Matlin is expected to be named athletic director at the University of Hawaii today.

Matlin's name was forwarded to Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman by an eight-member search advisory committee last week.

Matlin did not return calls to the Star-Advertiser last night and a UH spokesman declined comment.

Matlin, 50, has run the Hawaii Bowl since 2008 and the Diamond Head Classic since 2009.

Matlin and insurance executive Keith Amemiya emerged as the leading candidates from a field of at least 70 applicants for the position, though Amemiya was not interviewed by the committee.

Amemiya, 48, was interviewed by Bley-Vroman March 13.

Ben Jay, who held the job for almost two years, announced his resignation Dec. 9 and the process to select a replacement began Jan. 13.

UH has said the choice will go to the UH Board of Regents next month for final approval.

Matlin was born in Honolulu and given the middle names Alexander and  Kalakaua (he shares a birthday with the Merrie Monarch), but raised on the mainland where his father, Lew, was a baseball executive. He is a graduate  of the University of Michigan and received an MBA from UH.

After graduating from Michigan, Matlin worked his way up from an intern with the Houston Astros to the team's marketing operations manager and director of sales. At age 26 he was the youngest director of sales in MLB.

But Matlin and his wife, the former Dana Hatate of Honolulu, who he met at Michigan, wanted to return to Hawaii. Initially brushed off by UH he persisted and got a position doing event marketing for the school, including the Midnight Ohana, while completing an MBA.

As an assistant ticket manager at UH is was credited with overseeing a conversion to computerization that dragged the office into the 21st century. In 2002 he became associate director of the inaugural Hawaii Bowl and in 2008 was named executive director of the game for ESPN Events, which owns it. He added the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic in 2009.

[3/19/15] Keith Amemiya traded it in

Dave Matlin really wanted to live in Hawaii

[3/18/15] A search advisory committee Tuesday recommended Dave Matlin as the next athletic director of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. But chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman might choose Keith Amemiya, sources told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Matlin referred questions to the search committee. Amemiya declined comment. Another finalist who was interviewed by the committee, UH associate athletic director John McNamara, referred questions to the committee.

Matlin, executive director of the Hawaii Bowl and the Diamond Head Classic, was the top candidate among finalists interviewed by the committee.

Amemiya, an insurance executive and former executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, was seen on campus with Bley-Vroman last week. He was not interviewed by the committee.

Bley-Vroman can take the committee's recommendation, or make a choice of his own. An announcement will be made by UH by March 31, according to a UH news release. Then the Board of Regents would have to approve the selection at its April 16 meeting.

"I'm confident that we will be able to name an athletic director that possesses the right combination of executive leadership skills and vision to guide and grow the program through these challenging times," Bley-Vroman said in the release.

Current athletic director Ben Jay will step aside when his successor is selected. It was announced on Dec. 9 that Jay would leave at a later date.

[3/14/15] In 2002, take-it-to-the-bank word around town was that the University of Hawaii athletic director’s job was Dick Tomey’s.

Right up until the time that UH President Evan Dobelle saw Herman Frazier’s Olympic medalist resume, that is.

As one former AD long ago put it, “It is never over until they call the press conference — and even then you should look around to see who else is standing at the podium.”

We bring this up because the current process to hire an AD shows signs of not being over. Just because the search advisory committee is said to have concluded its interviews and is polishing up its official recommendation to Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman doesn’t necessarily mean the white puff of smoke from Hawaii Hall is imminent.

Hawaii Bowl executive director David Matlin got high marks from the committee and is widely expected to get the august body’s “official” endorsement. Perhaps as soon as next week.

But the drama thickened considerably Friday after insurance executive Keith Amemiya was seen on campus with Bley-Vroman.

A UH spokesman declined to “either confirm or deny” a meeting took place.