He served as the athletic director at the University of Maryland from 1969 to 1978, during which time he was responsible for the hiring of future Hall of Fame coaches Lefty Driesell, Jerry Claiborne, Bud Beardmore, and Chris Weller.

[1] In 1969, Kehoe resigned from his coaching positions to take over as the university's athletic director with the task of turning around the struggling football and basketball programs.

In his sixth week on the job, Kehoe hired Lefty Driesell as the new basketball coach, and said it was "a new era in athletics at the University of Maryland... top drawer, all the way and nothing less.

"[1] Driesell, after he had promised to make Maryland the "UCLA of the East",[2] helped form the basketball program into a perennial NCAA tournament contender.

[3] Kehoe appointed Jerry Claiborne as Lester's successor, who reversed the team's fortunes and won three consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference championships in the 1970s.

[1] With the help of his college track teammate Tom Fields as head fundraiser, Kehoe made the Maryland athletic program financially successful as well.

[1] As Title IX was being debated, Kehoe resisted expansion of the women's athletic programs,[1] arguing that they do not generate any income to support themselves.