Hunter Lively is in his third year with the LCU Athletic Department after beginning his position as Assistant Athletic Director of External Operations in the summer of 2023. Prior to his arrival in Lubbock, he spent two years as a video production instructor at Fountain Lake Charter High School in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He brings nine years of experience within NCAA Division II athletics and all were at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark. Lively jumped into the HSU Athletic Department in 2012 as a sports information assistant and spent four years (2012-16) in the sports information office before spending three years as HSU’s Director of Athletic Marketing/External Operations (2016-19) and two years as the Assistant Athletic Director for External Affairs (2019-21).
In his first year at LCU, Lively was involved in a multitude of areas including fundraising for the athletic department through corporate sponsorships, special events (annual golf tournament, etc.) and donations. His involvement included adding the
corporate sponsorships and
giving pages on the LCU Athletics website, maintaining relationships with LCU’s current corporate partners, and fostering relationships with new partners that saw a revenue increase of over $70,000 for the department.
Additionally, Lively is responsible for facilitating in-game promotions and events with LCU’s Student Engagement office, assisting in game day facility setup, and serving as public address announcer for Chaps Baseball. Lively currently serves as the advisor for the
Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
Lively’s primary duties slightly shifted during the 2024-25 academic year, as he managed a game-day operations and administrative role at home events, cultivating fan experience, logistics, supervision/training/scheduling of support staff, game management, facility rentals, and event setup/breakdown.
While at Henderson State, Lively was responsible for the Reddies' corporate sponsorship program, game day promotions, special events, radio broadcasts, social media, video production/graphic design and the coordination of community engagement efforts for the athletic program. He also served as the athletic department's head licensing representative, reviewing all licensing requests to ensure they were cohesive with the Henderson State Athletics brand guidelines.
Lively organized and coordinated HSU's annual "Turn-Up For Tipoff" event which highlighted the HSU men's and women's basketball teams, as well as the annual "Redspys" end of the year athletic awards ceremony. At the 2018-19 COSIDA Publication and Digital Design Awards, Lively was recognized for his
"No Mere Beast" campaign video launched in the summer of 2018. The video was voted seventh place in the nation, and competed against all Division II, III, NAIA and Junior College entries. In addition, Lively was responsible for maintaining and advising the Henderson State Athletics marketing internship program, where three-to-five interns were selected each year to assist the athletic department in a variety of ways and gain on-the-job experience at home athletic events.
A native of Hot Springs, Arkansas, Lively graduated from Henderson State in May 2016 with a Master’s Degree in Sport Administration, and previously in May 2014 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications. He currently lives in Lubbock, Texas with his wife, Emily and their son Hudson, who was born in January 2023. Emily is the daughter of LCU volleyball coaches Keith and Michal Giboney.
