Bob Bowlsby, athletic director at the University of Iowa for nearly 15 years, will become the Jaquish and Kenninger Director of Athletics in mid-July. He replaces Ted Leland, PhD ’83, who stepped down after 14 years to become vice president for university advancement at the University of the Pacific.
“We’re very excited about Bob’s decision to come be the athletic director at Stanford,” University president John Hennessy said at an April press conference where Bowlsby was introduced to the campus. “He built a tremendous athletic program at the University of Iowa.”
Bowlsby is credited with having turned Iowa into a Big Ten success story, particularly in football, men’s and women’s basketball, and wrestling. In 2001-02 the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics named him Central Region Athletic Director of the Year. Prior to his work at Iowa, Bowlsby served as athletic director at the University of Northern Iowa.
A wrestler in his college days at Minnesota’s Moorhead State, Bowlsby, 54, is seen as an athletics director who values both revenue and nonrevenue sports—someone who will continue to support the across-the-board strength that has led Stanford to 11 consecutive NACDA Directors’ Cups at press time. At Iowa, he oversaw a $90 million renovation of Kinnick Stadium and construction of a $12 million tennis facility. “One of the ironies of taking this job is that I have worked the last five years to put in place a stadium renovation that’s about $90 million, and I’ll never see a game in it as the athletic director,” Bowlsby said. “And I’ll walk in here and have a brand-new stadium that I didn’t have any hand in planning.”
With his wife, Candice, sitting nearby at the press conference, Bowlsby said the fact that they were new empty nesters—the youngest of their four children starts college at Iowa this fall—had contributed to the decision to accept the Stanford offer. “I have a [master’s] degree from Iowa, my family has 19 degrees from Iowa, we have very deep roots in the Midwest,” Bowlsby added. “And the fact of the matter is, I have never been able to get a job outside of Iowa. So I’m very pleased to be here.
“There’s always been something about [Stanford],” Bowlsby said. “Some of it is where it’s located; some of it is its extraordinary academic profile; some of it is the championships that are won every year. It’s a singular blend of academic and athletic excellence that is really very impressive.”
Interim athletics director Bill Walsh, a past Stanford and San Francisco 49ers head football coach and more recently special assistant to Leland, will remain with the department for another year, at Bowlsby’s request.
Noting that there had been more than 50 candidates for the athletics director position, Provost John Etchemendy, PhD ’82, said that Bowlsby emerged “head and shoulders above all the others.” He cited “the depth of Bob’s knowledge and the values that he holds.” Bowlsby’s integrity, Etchemendy said, “was just exemplary.”
