When David Currey was appointed Chapman University's Director of Athletics in 1990, the program had just nine intercollegiate athletic teams and competed at the NCAA Division II level. Soon after he took the reins the university began to shift gears and he was asked to oversee and support the program's transition to the Division III level.

Since the school's inter-division move in 1994 and the revival of football at Chapman ending a 62-year hiatus, the Panthers have grown to 19 intercollegiate athletic teams and eight club sports. And in 2011, Chapman accepted an invitation to become the ninth member of the prestigious Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). Including intramurals, an estimated one in four Chapman students participates in sports.

Currey's leadership has thrust the Panthers into nation prominence as an athletics power. During his tenure, Chapman has won national championships in softball (1995) and baseball (2003), had the football and men's basketball teams ranked in the top-25 in the nation, and sent the school's 18 intercollegiate teams to the NCAA playoffs 83 times in the past 18 years. In 2011 under Currey’s guidance, Chapman became the ninth member of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) making the transition from a Division III Independent.

Currey came to Chapman after a stint as an assistant football coach at UCLA in 1989. Prior to that, he was the head football coach at Cincinnati from 1984-89. He made a name for himself in Southern California as the head coach of the Long Beach State ‘49ers from 1977-84, winning a Pacific Coast Athletics Association championship in 1980. In 2010, Currey was inducted into the St. Bonaventure High School Hall of Fame for leading the Seraphs to a CIF championship in 1968.

Currey earned a bachelor's degree from Cal State Los Angeles in 1966 and master's from Stanford University in 1969. He took an assistant coaching position at Stanford and went to the Rose Bowl with the Cardinal in 1971 and 1972.