GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Dr. Don Lyle, Director of Athletics and Chairman of the Department of Exercise Science and Athletics at Grove City College, will retire from the College at the conclusion of this academic year.

Lyle is in his 13th year as athletic director and 19th year as department chair. The 2014-15 academic year is Lyle’s 43rd overall year at Grove City. He currently oversees the College's intricate fitness and wellness program, its rapidly-growing exercise science major and Grove City's 21-sport varsity athletics program.

A native of Calcutta, Ohio, Lyle joined the College’s athletic department in 1972 as head men’s soccer coach and assistant men’s basketball coach. He guided Grove City's men's soccer team from 1972 to 2005 and finished his coaching career as the program’s all-time leader in wins with 277. As head coach, he led the Wolverines to six post-season berths, including a pair of trips to the NCAA Championship Tournament. Seventeen of his players earned NSCAA All-Region honors.

In 1996, Lyle directed Grove City to a share of the Presidents' Athletic Conference men's soccer title as the Wolverines went 16-2, setting a school record for victories in a season en route to winning their first Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) title. Nine years later in 2005, his final season as head coach, Lyle guided Grove City to its first-ever outright PAC title and a trip to the finals of the ECAC Southern Championship Tournament. He earned the PAC's Coach of the Year award that year.

Lyle-coached teams also advanced to post-season play in 1976, 1980, 1995 and 2000. In 34 years as head coach, he compiled a 277-206-37 record. The College inducted him into its Men's Soccer Hall of Fame in October 2006.

Having a greater impact than mere wins and losses, Lyle’s legacy also has profoundly shaped the culture and lineage of the men’s soccer program. After establishing the annual men’s soccer alumni match during Homecoming weekend early in his career, Lyle spearheaded the creation of the College’s Men’s Soccer Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2013, Lyle also co-authored “Tales From the Pitch,” a written history of the Grove City College soccer program.

His influence involving the game of soccer has also spilled over from the campus community into the greater Grove City and Mercer County communities. From 1978 to 2005, he hosted the Wolverine Soccer Camp, providing instruction to approximately 5,400 campers. Locally, he helped establish the Grove City Youth Soccer Association, which eventually led to the creation of the Grove City High School varsity soccer program in the 1980s. For his efforts, Lyle received the Florence McKenzie Campus-Community Award in 1988.

While soccer has always been his primary sport, Lyle also coached three other sports during his tenure at the college. He worked as assistant men’s basketball coach and junior varsity men’s basketball coach from 1972 to 1979 and helped both the 1976 and 1979 basketball teams advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

In 1980, the College appointed Lyle as its first softball coach and he posted a 91-61 (.599) record from 1980-88 as head coach. He remains the program's all-time leader in winning percentage. Grove City went 60-28 over his last four seasons and won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title in 1987.

Lyle then spent nine years as baseball coach at Grove City. His 1991 squad set a modern single-season program record by winning 13 games. The next year, Grove City won a school-record 15 games. Overall, Grove City won 81 games during his stint as baseball coach.

The College promoted Lyle to Chairman of the Department of Physical Education (now Exercise Science) in 1996. He added the responsibilities of athletic director in 2003.

Under his leadership, Grove City’s athletic facilities have undergone extensive improvements over the past decade. In 2012, the College renovated the Grove City College Arena, and Grove City has also upgraded its football/track facility, Robert E. Thorn Field, the Walters-Zbell Tennis Courts, the James E. Longnecker Pool, R. Jack Behringer Baseball Field, the College’s soccer complex and the Grove City College softball facility in recent years.

Additionally, Lyle has been responsible for the design, expansion and continual development of the College’s two fitness centers since first taking over as department chairman.

Lyle has overseen a growth in promotion of the College’s rich athletic heritage, which ranks among his proudest accomplishments as athletic director. He directed the establishment of the Grove City College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006 and has served as chairman of that body’s selection committee since. The College’s Physical Learning Center, which houses the fitness rooms and the Grove City College Arena, has also been modernized over the last decade with numerous displays that reflect the College’s proud athletic tradition, including a unique exhibit that presents the century-old history of women’s athletics at Grove City.

In 2008, Lyle also reintroduced the College’s classic varsity “G” monogram as the athletic department’s official logo.

Lyle earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Muskingum College in 1971. He earned his master's degree in education from Miami of Ohio in 1972. Lyle received his doctorate from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  He and his wife Barbara '84 live in Pine Township. They have three adult children and nine grandchildren.