An All-America discus thrower at the University of Alabama from 1982-86 and an international standout for six years, Kelly Landry loves track and field.

An administrator who worked directly with men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, golf, swimming and softball at the University of Illinois the past five years, Landry is equally jazzed about those intercollegiate sports.

But ask Landry what sport really gets her blood pumping, and Kansas University’s new senior women’s administrator will say football.

“From a watching standpoint, I am a major football fan. I love football. I don’t know if it’s from being at Miami, but I could watch football all day,” said Landry, a Panama City, Fla., native who worked four years at college football power Miami as assistant AD for business/senior women’s administrator.

Landry will oversee various sports at KU — specifics haven’t been announced yet — but one of them won’t be men’s hoops. She oversaw all operations of the programs of Illinois men’s basketball coaches Lon Kruger, Bill Self and Bruce Weber.

Self now is head coach at KU.

“Bill is absolutely a great guy. What more can I say?” Landry said with a laugh. “What you see is what you get. He is hysterical. I won’t work with men’s basketball at Kansas, but fortunately I can check it off as something I did and did for five years. It’s a good thing, but not something I have to hold onto.

“Working with Lon Kruger, Bill and Bruce Weber, three successful men’s basketball coaches, has been a great experience for me.”

Self returned the compliment.

“I think Kelly will bring a lot of good things to the table here,” Self said. “She is highly organized, a hard worker, very competent and did a great job at Illinois and I’m sure she will here.”

Kansas AD Lew Perkins also is full of praise for the Landry.

“She has great experience. She has a business background and background as an athlete,” Perkins said. “She’s had dealings with the Big Ten and Big East business office five to six years.

“Her sense of fairness … she is bright, articulate and calming, a very good administrator, a competitor. She competed in the World Games and Pan American games. The competitiveness about her is something I really like.”

Landry reveals her competitive instincts while discussing the most memorable meet of her discus-throwing career. She notched fourth at the U.S. Trials in 1992.

Just the top three finishers advanced to the Olympic Games.

“Unfortunately, my biggest memory (as athlete) is a painful one,” Landry said. “I think the thing I’m most proud of is the ’92 Trials. I had some great success in the World University Games. I made the team and went to Yugoslavia and finished sixth. It was great for exposure.

“I made the Pan Am Games. Ray Mercer and Riddick Bowe were boxers there; David Robinson was on the basketball team. Those were exciting times. At the Trials in ’92, I just missed … fourth place. They take the top three. It was one of those things.”

Landry is enthused about working for Perkins.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “The coaches I had the opportunity to meet in my interview had a lot of energy and seem to be very competitive and capable. Lew and the staff he has assembled … I am really looking forward to working with them.

“Lew is dynamic. You look at all the things he did at UConn. He made it one of the best programs in the country.”