After 21 years with ACU, Lance Fleming informed the department he would be leaving his position. He was the associate director of athletics for media relations and the main media contact for football and men’s basketball.
Now, he’ll be working as the director of communications for Abilene Independent School District.
Fleming said it can certainly be challenging to reflect on a job that’s become a routine.
“It’s hard to put 21 years into perspective,” Fleming said. “It’s the best job I’ve ever had, and I hope the one I’m going to is even better. Its been 21 years of great memories and friendships and relationships that I’ve been able to build.”
A native of Abilene, Fleming is an ACU alum having graduated in 1992. Fleming received a B.A. in mass communication from ACU and was a copy editor, sports writer and news writer for both the Abilene Reporter-News and the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
In his time at his position, Fleming said there’s several memorable moments he could point out in his time here.
“The most memorable would have to be the last two weeks of this basketball season,” Fleming said. “I don’t know if anything we’ve done before will top that.”
Both the men and women’s basketball teams in March clinched their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Div. I tournament. Fleming traveled to Jacksonville to cover the men in their game against Kentucky.
Fleming’s process of getting hired to AISD was somewhat poetic, as he discovered he was offered the job at an interesting time.
“This job that I’m going to go work for came about early to mid-February,” Fleming said. “The day we played Kentucky, I was walking into the arena and I was offered the job. It was pretty cool for that to be the last thing to cover at ACU.”
Despite leaving ACU, he never thought he’d be in this situation: however, time changes everything.
“I never thought I would leave here,” Fleming said. “I thought I would retire here. My wife and I made a decision a long time ago that we wanted to raise our family here, but it came to a point where I needed to spend more time with my them.”
He and his wife, Jill, are the co-founders of the P4X Foundation, which honors the life of their son, Rex, who died in November 2012 at the age of 10 after a two-year battle with brain cancer.
The P4X Foundation’s goals are to affect the lives of pediatric cancer patients and their families in a positive way, and become a beacon of hope to people in and around our community.
He and Jill, have been married 21 years and have two other children: a daughter, Ashley 13, and a son, Ryan 7.
Fleming is expected to leave his position in July, but the search for a new director of media relation will soon begin.
