One of the founding fathers of the Little East Conference, John P. Clark was a driving force behind the birth of the conference in the mid 1980s. Clark hosted the second organized meeting at Plymouth State on March 18, 1985 to determine if enough interest existed to form a men's and women's basketball conference. The meeting sparked the third and final organizational meeting at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) fall meeting in September 30, 1985, where six institutions—Eastern Connecticut State University, University of Massachusetts Boston, Plymouth State College, Rhode Island College, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (formerly Southeastern Massachusetts), and the University of Southern Maine—accepted an invitation to join the league.
During his 17-year tenure as the Director of Athletics at Plymouth State, Clark has continued to shape the conference through the creation of the schedules for the 19-sponsored sports. He has also developed opportunities for student-athletes to participate in intercollegiate athletics through the establishment of numerous sponsored-sports on the Panther campus. Clark is currently the President of the Little East Athletic Directors Council.