Mike Houck - Associate A.D. / Strategic Communications (Football, Men's Basketball) - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Mike Houck

Title:
Associate A.D. / Strategic Communications (Football, Men's Basketball)
Email:
Phone:
(405) 325-8227

Mike Houck, who has served the University of Oklahoma Athletics Communications Office since 1995, was promoted to associate athletics director for strategic communications in 2022 and is the department's primary communications contact for football. His office is responsible for publicity of OU's athletics programs, coaches and student-athletes.

Houck has worked more than 250 Sooner football games during his tenure, including every OU-Texas contest since his arrival in Norman as well as eight BCS Championship or College Football Playoff games. For 19 years, he served as the official spotter on OU's press box stats crew.

Working every OU men's basketball game for 20 years (1995-96 through 2014-15) as the program's primary media relations contact, Houck began his postgraduate career as an intern at OU during the 1995-96 school year. He also held titles of assistant director and associate director of communications before being promoted to director of media relations in 2012 and to assistant AD in 2015. Additionally, Houck served as the color analyst on the Sooner Sports Network's men's basketball radio broadcasts from 2001-02 through 2014-15, teaming with play-by-play announcers Bob Barry Sr. and Toby Rowland.

The Pennsylvania native, who also lived in North Carolina and Wisconsin as a youth, has served as the media contact for four national players of the year in Blake Griffin and Buddy Hield in men's basketball, and Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray in football, who both won the Heisman Trophy, as well as Heisman runner-up Jalen Hurts.

Houck has worked directly with a variety of other sports programs at OU, including men's and women's golf, soccer, softball and men's and women's gymnastics. He served as the local media coordinator for the Women's College World Series, played in Oklahoma City, for 17 years.

Houck also acted as the department's SoonerSports.com contact for four years. In 2001, he was the inaugural recipient of the Will Hancock Award, a national honor for excellence in athletics website management and direction. The award was presented in memory of late Oklahoma State men's basketball media relations contact Will Hancock.

Several of Houck's media guides have earned national recognition from the College Sports Information Directors of America, including the 2017 and 2020 OU football guides that were judged best in the country. His 2018, 2019 and 2023 football media guides finished in second place nationally, while his 2010-11 and 2009-10 men's basketball guides were deemed third and fourth best, respectively.

Houck got his start in the athletics communications profession as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism (public relations and advertising) in 1994. He and his wife Tara have a daughter named Avery.