Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick
Vice President • Director of Athletics
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ohn B. “Jack” Swarbrick Jr., a University of Notre Dame graduate who rose to national prominence as a lawyer, consultant and executive in the collegiate and Olympic sports industries, is in his fourth year as vice president and director of athletics at his alma mater. Among Swarbrick’s athletics initiatives are meeting the performance needs of Notre Dame student-athletes through establishment of a new sports performance division, reaching out to more former Irish student-athletes via the Notre Dame Monogram Club and other programs, utilizing emerging digital technologies to deliver better information on and access to Notre Dame athletic programs via expanded production and distribution of programming, and restructuring Notre Dame’s approach to sport administration through assignment of a unique administrator to each of the 26 Irish sports. Notre Dame ranked number one in the country (among Football Bowl Subdivision schools) in the three most recent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) surveys – in 2010 and 2009 with 99 scores (including in ‘09 a 97 score and ’10 a 96 in football that both also ranked number one). The 2009 Academic Progress Rate (APR) statistics included more perfect 1,000 scores by Irish teams (nine) than by any other FBS institution. The 2010 Notre Dame APR report featured eight perfect 1,000 scores. The past three years combined in Notre Dame athletics have featured 94 AllAmericans, 19 Academic All-America selections and five NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship winners; record involvement in community service hours by Irish student-athletes; NCAA titles in 2011 in men’s and women’s fencing (a combined championship) and in 2010 in women’s soccer (with Randy Waldrum named coach of the year); NCAA runner-up team finishes in 2011 women’s basketball, 2010 men’s lacrosse, 2009 fencing and 2008 women’s soccer; NCAA semifinal appearances in 2011 hockey, 2009 and 2010 women’s tennis and 2009 women’s soccer, plus a 2010 third-place fencing finish; a men’s basketball modern program record 27 victories and a number-two NCAA seed (its highest in 30 years) in 2010-11 (resulting in national coach of the year awards for Mike Brey); the hiring of new Irish head football coach Brian Kelly to start the 2010 season; construction of a new, freestanding ice hockey arena, scheduled to open for the 2011-12 season, plus the 2009-10 dedications of new facilities for soccer and lacrosse – as well
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as opening of the new Purcell Pavilion within the south dome of the Joyce Center. Born in Yonkers, N.Y., and raised in Yonkers and Bloomington, Ind., Swarbrick is a 1976 magna cum laude graduate of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Upon graduating from Stanford University Law School in 1980, he returned to Indiana to accept a position as an associate in the Indianapolis law firm Baker & Daniels. He made partner in 1987 and spent 28 years overall with the firm. As a member of the Indiana Sports Corporation, including the chairmanship from 1992 to 2001, Swarbrick led many of the city’s successful proposals to a wide array of athletics organizations – from the National Football League to the United States Olympic Committee to the Big Ten Conference. His leadership efforts resulted in the city earning the right to play host to the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium; becoming the home of the National Collegiate Athletic Association national headquarters in 1999; hosting the 1987 Pan American Games, 1991 World Gymnastics Championships, NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Fours and other college championship competitions and an array of national and world championships in Olympic sports. At Baker & Daniels, Swarbrick served as general counsel for numerous national governing bodies of Olympic sports, including USA Gymnastics and USRowing, and as a consultant to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. In his work as an advisor to the NCAA, Swarbrick coordinated the men’s College Basketball Partnership, an NCAA-led group that addresses the opportunities and challenges in the sport, and developed the business plan for the new NBA/ NCAA youth basketball enterprise, iHoops. In 2000 Swarbrick received one of the NCAA’s highest honors, The Flying Wedge Award, for his work in establishing Indianapolis as the new home of the NCAA. In 2001 the State of Indiana presented him with the Sagamore of the Wabash Award. Born March 19, 1954, Swarbrick was named Notre Dame’s 12th athletics director on July 16, 2008. He and his wife, Kimberly, are the parents of four children: Kate, a 2010 graduate of St. Louis University; Connor, a 2011 graduate of Wake Forest University; Cal, a sophomore at TCU; and Christopher, a University of Notre Dame freshman.
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