Saint Michael's College

Chris served the Department of Athletics for 37 years (1987-2024), compiling one of the most outstanding tenures ever by an administrator at the College. In June 2024, he moved into a new role as the College’s Executive Director of Stewardship & Leadership Giving, and is in his 40th year as a Saint Michael’s employee upon induction. Chris led Saint Michael’s Athletics through a significant period of growth as Director of Athletics (2015-24). The number of full-time head coaches more than doubled, and additional staff supported areas such as strength & conditioning, sports medicine, and athletic communications. An enhanced scholarship model contributed to additional athletic success and expanded rosters, and substantial improvements were made to facilities. Prior to his stint as Director of Athletics, Chris was Senior Associate Director of Athletics (2014-15), Associate Director of Athletics (2003-14), Assistant Director of Athletics (1998-2003), Director of Athletic External Affairs (1996-98), and Sports Information Director (1987-96), building relationships through such responsibilities as NCAA compliance, marketing, development, and sport administration. Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1986 and a master’s degree in administration and management in 1998.

CHRIS’ STORY
On May 14, 1987, a headline atop a 2C story in the Burlington Free Press’ sports section announced Saint Michael’s College’s newest hire. Little did anyone know that hire – Chris Kenny ’86 – would still be serving his alma mater four decades later as a beloved employee, mentor, and Purple Knight parent.  

That 1987 announcement was nestled neatly under national and local box score agate, announcing that Chris “Kenney” - the paper ran a correction the following day - was hired as Sports Information Director, replacing mentor Gerry Miles, his boss in the department while an undergraduate. In the decades following, Chris would work his way up through College’s communications and athletics ranks until being tapped as the Director of Athletics in 2015.

Only a select few ever served the College’s Department of Athletics longer than Chris. After 37 years with the department, in June 2024, Chris moved into a new role as the College’s Executive Director of Stewardship & Leadership Giving within the Office of Advancement and Communications. The 2026-27 school year is his 40th as a College employee.  

The Class of 1986 alum’s journey has nearly come full circle as he’s charted a legacy of service affecting multiple generations of students, all because of their connection to the small college on the hill in Winooski Park.

During the year between Kenny’s graduation and hire, the journalism major worked in media relations for a pair of Double-A Eastern League baseball teams - first the Vermont Reds, then the Reading (Pennsylvania) Phillies - before returning to his alma mater thanks to the advocacy of Director of Marketing & Communications Buff Lindau, his supervisor during an era when the College’s SID was housed in her department.

Chris landed in a position that charged him with leading publicity efforts for the College’s 18 varsity athletic programs. Under legendary Director of Athletics Edward P. Markey ’51, the Department of Athletics was amid a growth spurt; less than a decade prior, it had offered only four women’s sports. The coming years would see baseball and softball revived by 1990, and Saint Michael’s become a core league member for the first time as a member of the Northeast 10 Conference.

After the position went full-time in the early 1980s, Chris was also the only person to serve as the College’s Sports Information Director for more than three years until the early 2000s. During his nine years in the role, he was the department’s liaison to media members like WCAX-TV’s Tony Adams, himself an SMC Athletic Hall of Famer. Purple Knights appeared in such national publications as Sports Illustrated, and Chris employed and oversaw student workers, paying forward Miles’ mentorship.

A student of history, Chris built upon Jerry Healy’s ’50 well-researched sports record books during his tenure as SID. Later, he would use this knowledge to pen the story of Saint Michael’s Athletics during the College’s 2004 Centennial Celebration.

In 1996, Chris was appointed the College’s Director of Athletic External Affairs. When Markey retired in 1997 after 42 years as an Athletics administrator, including 29 as director, Chris moved from the Office of Institutional Advancement across Vermont Route 15 to the Department of Athletics, serving under new AD Geri Knortz.

Chris’s geniality and innate ability to pivot made him an indispensable member of the administrative team, as he connected with students and staff members alike while taking on new responsibilities within NCAA compliance, marketing and sport administration. He continued to rise through the ranks, becoming Assistant Director of Athletics in 1998, Associate Director of Athletics in 2003, and Senior Associate Director of Athletics in 2014, following the retirement of Zaf Bludevich.

In 2015, following Knortz’s retirement and a national search, Chris ascended to Director of Athletics. He remains one of only five people to hold that role since George “Doc” Jacobs, the Father of Modern Athletics at Saint Michael’s, was hired in 1947.

During his nine years as AD, Chris led Saint Michael’s Athletics through a significant period of growth. Student-athletes made up more than 20% of the College’s undergraduate student body in 2015; that percentage has since doubled. The number of full-time head coaches also more than doubled during Chris’s tenure, and additional staff supported areas such as strength & conditioning, sports medicine, and athletic communications (formerly sports information, where he began). An enhanced scholarship model contributed to additional athletic success and expanded rosters. The athletics facilities received substantial improvements, as well, to support the growing programs.

As Chris often noted, the Ross Sports Center was constructed in 1973 with an eye toward hosting an NCAA basketball tournament - that came to fruition during his final year as AD, when men’s basketball was the No. 1 seed and host of the 2024 NCAA Division II East Regional Championship.

Chris also helped set the stage for the current era of success in Saint Michael’s Athletics, which now boasts 22 varsity programs. Men’s ice hockey won the NE10 Championship in 2025, and Athletics experienced arguably its greatest school year in 2025-26, when a school-record five teams were represented in NCAA Championships and four programs set school records for wins. The College’s Academic Success Rate is still among the best in NCAA Division II, placing top 10 nationally every year since 2007, including topping Division II four times during his stint as director.

After growing up in Greenfield, Massachusetts, Chris and his family - wife Lisa and daughters Jillian ’18 and Molly - call Essex Junction home. Chris, who completed a master’s degree in administration at the College in 1998, remains as integral as ever to the College through his new Advancement role, still cultivating relationships with alumni, undergraduates, and employees alike. And he continues to keep an eye on Athletics, his original on-campus home of 37 years.

Three months after his hire in 1987, Chris found himself on the ground floor of the College’s Athletic Hall of Fame, playing a key role in the inaugural induction. Since then, five teams and nearly 200 individuals have taken their place in the SMC Athletic Hall of Fame, and Chris has been there to greet them all.

Four decades later, Chris finally takes his rightful place among the College’s Athletics legends.