If you see Chad Weiberg pinching himself, don’t be alarmed.

He happens to be working a dream job since being named Mike Holder’s successor and officially taking over as Oklahoma State University’s director of athletics on July 1.

“Sometimes it’s even hard for me to believe I’m in this position,” said Weiberg, who spoke to a packed room Tuesday at Kingfisher Rotary Club.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity and still can’t believe it.”

The son of a basketball coach, Weiberg said he’s “always been an OSU fan.”

That was cemented in 1985 when his father, Mick, joined Paul Hansen’s staff in Stillwater.

And that’s also where the dream began, even if Weiberg didn’t yet know it.

He told Rotarians of the first time he ever watched wresting live.

It was in the old Gallagher Hall and OSU featured some guy named John Smith.

“Now, I get to interact with him on a daily basis,” Weiberg said of Smith, now OSU’s longtime head wrestling coach. “And sometimes after we’re finished, I think to myself ‘that was John Smith, the greatest wrestler of all time.’”

Weiberg said he sat on the hill at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium and witnessed games that became part of Robin Ventura’s 58-game hitting streak, a record that still stands.

“And now he’s a part of our staff here,” Weiberg said, recalling the time he was approached by Ventura about becoming a graduate student at the university and a student assistant on the OSU baseball staff.

“The first thing I did was look around to see if I was being punked,” Weiberg said.

But that’s the life Weiberg is able to live as he started as an intern in the athletic department, worked his way into a full-time role, left the university and returned in 2017.

Weiberg said he knew at an early age he wanted to be involved in athletics.

“But I was not gifted with a lot of athleticism,” he said. “I figured to remain a part of athletics, I’d have to find a way to be involved instead of playing.”

As a junior at OSU, Weiberg took on a non-paying role as an intern in the athletic department while still working a paying job outside of that gig.

“I did the jobs nobody else wanted to do,” he said.

When he was a senior, the athletic department job became one that paid, allowing him to give up his other part-time job.

“I thought I’d hit the bigtime then and that’s how it all started,” he said.

During that senior year, Weiberg said he applied for athletic department jobs all over the country when a full-time position within OSU’s department suddenly opened.

At the urging of Dave Martin, Weiberg applied and ultimately earned the role as director of corporate sales and donor relations in 1994.

He took on different roles over the next nine years before accepting a position at Kansas State University.

“I remember thinking when I left that it was agood thing for me to grow professionally,” he said. “But I also knew there was the reality that I may never be back. The stars would have to align and the chances were so slim.”

Weiberg worked 11 years at Kansas State and two at Texas Tech when those stars began to align.

Martin retired as deputy AD in 2017.

Weiberg was hired once again at his alma mater and became Holder’s second in command.

It was widely believed then he’d be brought in to take over the role once Holder was finished.

“I got the opportunity to come back and it felt like one of those bizarre, full-circle life moments,” Weiberg said.

While working for other universities and visiting so many others, Weiberg came to a few different conclusions.

“I think our facilities, top to bottom, are as good or better than anywhere in the country,” he said.

That began with the large gift from T. Boone Pickens. Although the monetary donation was immense, Weiberg said Pickens’ gift is measured in other ways.

“I believe his lasting legacy was inspiration,” Weiberg said. “The belief that we can be anything we want to be at OSU.”

Pickens’ donation spurred others, which has led to massive facilities upgrades across the board on the Stillwater campus.

“Facilities are a physical manifestation of our commitment to athletics,” Weiberg said. “And people who have given will tell you the inspiration came from Boone.”

Another realization, Weiberg said, was something he took for granted both as a student and early in his career.

It’s Oklahoma State’s massive successes on the fields, courts, mats and various other athletic surfaces.

OSU owns 52 NCAA national championships while competing in just 18 different sports.

That ranked the school fourth behind only Stanford, UCLA and Southern California.

Those schools, Weiberg noted, compete in more than 30 different sports.

OSU routinely ranks in the top-20 nationally in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, which uses a formula to rank schools’ successes in athletics.

“It’s not accidental,” Weiberg said of the success. “It takes a lot of work and everyone we play against is trying to do the same thing we are everyday.”

Yet, many universities sit there without a single national title.

“It gave me a renewed appreciation of what goes on at this place,” Weiberg said. “We need to be aware of that and take pride in it.”

Weiberg was joined at the meeting by Dennicia Craft, the assistant director of athletic operations. She’s been with the department since 1983.

“She’s the person who has held this athletic department together for years,” said Rotarian John Johnson, an OSU alum and longtime supporter of OSU athletics who introduced the pair to the club.

Johnson added of Weiberg: “We’re thankful to have a person of his caliber and character as athletic director.”

Weiberg recalled coming to Kingfisher when he was 12 or 13 years old.

“I rode with dad out here,” he said. “That’s when I first met Mike (Johnson) and John.

“They are great examples of what OSU athletics are all about.”