James J. Phillips became Northwestern's 21st director of intercollegiate athletics and recreation on April 14, 2008, bringing with him a track record of success at the Division I level and a commitment to the values Northwestern always has maintained in collegiate athletics. In August of 2011, Phillips received a new 10-year contract that will keep him at Northwestern through 2020.

"The opportunity to lead Northwestern's athletic and recreation programs is both exciting and humbling," Phillips said. "Northwestern is a world-class institution that does things right in terms of college athletics and what they should stand for."

One of 10 children from a middle-class family, Phillips, who grew up in the Portage Park neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago, has proven to be the perfect fit to head up Northwestern's 19-sport program in the nation's No. 3 market. His deep Windy City roots and family orientation are an integral part of his core philosophy of providing student-athletes with a "world-class experience" that enables them to succeed academically, socially and athletically.

Phillips took little time to make a big impact on the Northwestern athletic department, hiring ultra-successful women's basketball coach Joe McKeown in June of 2008. McKeown came to Evanston after 19 years as the head coach at George Washington, where he took his team to the postseason 17 times. McKeown never had a losing season in 22 years as a head coach prior to arriving in Evanston, bringing a career record of 509-174 (.745) with him to NU. Phillips' second coaching hire was to name Tracey Fuchs the head of the field hockey program in January of 2009. Fuchs had arguably the most successful playing career in the history of USA Field Hockey and has been referred to as the "Michael Jordan of field hockey." In the winter of 2011, Phillips attracted eight-time Horizon League Coach of the Year Michael Moynihan to be NU's new women's soccer coach after he led UW-Milwaukee to 13 Horizon League championships including the previous 12 in succession.

In addition, Phillips has elevated a pair of Northwestern assistants to head coaching positions, naming Jarod Schroeder the men's swimming and diving head coach in 2009 and NU graduate Drew Pariano the wrestling head coach in 2010.

Phillips also has worked to keep successful coaches at NU. In June of 2009, he inked head football coach Pat Fitzgerald to a new seven-year deal, then extended that contract to 10 years in May of 2011 -- keeping Fitzgerald on the Wildcats' sideline through at least the 2020 season.

Women's lacrosse coach Kelly Amonte Hiller and men's soccer coach Tim Lenahan also received long term extensions from Phillips. Hiller took charge of the program when it returned from club status in 2002 and has led the Wildcats to six of the last seven NCAA National Championships. Lenahan, who has mentored his program to a pair of NCAA quarterfinal berths and NCAA tourney appearances in six of the last eight seasons after taking over a team that went winless in the year prior to his arrival. In 2011, men's soccer achieved the Big Ten Double by capturing both the regular season and tournament titles for the first time in school history.

On the field, Northwestern has continued to succeed across the board at a very high level. Football has won 30 games in the last four seasons, qualifying for four-straight bowl games for the first time in school history (2008 Alamo Bowl, 2010 Outback Bowl, 2011 TicketCity Bowl and 2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas). Men's basketball has won a school-record 20 games in each of the last two years while making three-straight NIT appearances, advancing all the way to the quarterfinals in 2011. Women's basketball has reached back-to-back NIT tournaments as well, moving on to the third round in 2010 and the second round in 2011. In fact, the 2009-10 and 2010-11 athletic years marked the first times in school history that the "Big Three" sports all advanced to postseason play.

Elsewhere, women's lacrosse has won six of the last seven NCAA National Championships while appearing in the title game in all seven of those seasons. Women's tennis became the first northern school ever to capture the ITA National Indoor championship in 2009 before earning its second-straight crown in 2010. The program also has won 13-consecutive Big Ten Tournament titles. In Phillips' time at Northwestern, women's lacrosse, softball, men's golf, women's fencing, women's tennis and wrestling all have won team or individual conference championships.

Individually, student-athletes have won the Tewaaraton Trophy in women's lacrosse (Hannah Neilson, Shannon Smith), the Big Ten Wayne Duke Award (Mark Ison), the Hodge Trophy in wrestling and the Big Ten Jesse Owens Award for conference male athlete of the year (Jake Herbert). Since Phillips' arrival in April of 2008, 11 Wildcats have been named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 26 have been named All-America first-team and 27 have picked up conference Player, Coach or Freshman of the Year accolades.

Academically, Wildcat student-athletes have had banner years. In 2008-09, Northwestern had a school-record-tying 879 student-athlete quarters in which a 3.0 GPA was earned, and 17 varsity teams achieved a 3.0 or better team GPA with all 19 varsity squads recording a 2.9 or better team GPA for two academic quarters (fall and spring) for the first time in school history. The department's combined student-athlete GPA for the spring quarter of 2009 was a school-record 3.26 average, one spot ahead of the 3.19 the Wildcats earned during the winter quarter of 2010. Northwestern's APR and GSR scores ranked in the top five and 10 in the nation, respectively.

Academic success continued to improve in 2009-10 when Northwestern received its best APR rating from the NCAA in the program's history. Every Wildcat program achieved a four-year average of 981 or better, 10 points higher than the lowest score in 2008-09. Five different programs (men's basketball, softball, women's tennis, men's tennis and women's golf) earned perfect four-year averages of 1,000. In addition to those five, a whopping 10 Northwestern varsity programs were honored by the NCAA with public recognition awards for being in the top-10 percent of their respective sports with their latest multi-year APR scores.

In the fall of 2010, Northwestern earned 90 Academic All-Big Ten honors including 32 by members of the football team to break that program's record for the fifth-straight season. All told during the 2010-11 academic year, a school-record 201 Wildcats were named Academic All-Big Ten, marking the first time NU received more than 200 such awards in school history. NU's fall student-athletes established a sport-season record for the fifth-straight year in 2011 with 97 Academic All-Big Ten awards.

Northwestern continues to be among the nation's leaders in community service under Phillips. In 2008-09, NU set a then-school record with 5,346 hours of community service. Ninety-five percent of student-athletes representing all 19 varsity sports participated in community service in 2009-10, compiling a total of 5,417 hours of work to break the school record again. That trend continued in 2010-11 when NU increased its impact in the Evanston and Chicagoland areas by more than 200 hours over the previous year, easily exceeding the 5,000 hour mark again.

Through the outstanding leadership of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and Peers Urging Responsible Practices through Leadership and Education (PURPLE), and individual team efforts, student-athletes stay consistently involved in a variety of events. Northwestern Athletics was well represented by men's and women's soccer and women's lacrosse at the 2011 Cycle for Survival, an indoor team cycling fundraiser that has raised more than $4.5 million in support of research on rare cancers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. For the second straight year, student-athletes attended the APPLE conference that promotes health and wellness on campuses across the country. In celebration of National Student-Athlete Day, student-athletes visited multiple schools and talked with elementary and junior high students about the balance of athletics and academics and answered many questions. In addition, by creating a new community relations department Northwestern Athletics has committed to increasing the number of community service hours each year while also growing the number of local schools, non-profit organizations and individuals impacted by our student-athletes.

Phillips has embarked on a number of major projects at Northwestern. One of his first actions was to begin the implementation of a Department of Athletics and Recreation re-organization that was completed in January of 2009. The athletic department's existing infrastructure was broken into three key "silos:" internal, external and student-athlete welfare.

In the external silo in 2010, Northwestern launched the first wide-ranging marketing campaign in the history of the athletic department. The campaign, with the tagline "Chicago's Big Ten Team," is aimed at building brand awareness and driving ticket sales over a multi-year time frame.

To raise awareness of Northwestern's brand in Chicagoland, Phillips moved a pair of Northwestern home events into to city of Chicago. In 2009, the Wildcats' baseball team defeated Notre Dame at U.S. Cellular Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox. In 2010, Phillips signed a deal to play Illinois at Wrigley Field on November 20 in what was the first football game at the "Friendly Confines" since 1970 and the first college football game there since 1938. Phillips inked a deal with Allstate to become the title sponsor of the game, dubbed the Allstate Wrigleyville Classic. Phillips also signed a contract to play a home-and-home series with Notre Dame beginning in 2014, marking the first time those two programs will meet since NU's historic win in South Bend in 1995.

NU has signed major corporate sponsorship deals with Northwestern Memorial Hospital and BMO Harris Bank while transitioning to Learfield Sports as its multimedia rights holder in March of 2011 and re-branding the entity Northwestern Sports Properties (NSP). Northwestern also signed a television deal with Comcast SportsNet Chicago to carry the new Pat Fitzgerald Show beginning in 2010 as well as a basketball show with men's head coach Bill Carmody and women's basketball head coach Joe McKeown. NU also created a new Annual Report to showcase the department's achievements over the previous year.

Phillips launched the first master facility plan study in Northwestern history in November of 2010. The final plan will establish an architectural program to align athletic facilities design and use with new services, identify priorities for improvements or options for existing facilities, propose strategies to stage renovations and identify where and when additional facilities may be needed in the future.

In June of 2011, Phillips was selected 3rd Vice President of the National Association of Collegiate Director's of Athletics (NACDA) by his peers. He will serve in that capacity for a year before becoming 2nd Vice President in 2012-13 and eventually serving as the President of NACDA in 2014-15 -- something a Northwestern AD has never done.

In June of 2009, Phillips was asked to serve on the NCAA Champions Forum panel, a group of football coaches and athletics directors making an effort to increase the hiring and awareness of minority football coaches. He is a member of the NACDA Executive Committee, the World Sport Chicago Board, the NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Program and previously served on Chicago's bid committee for the 2016 Olympic Games. Phillips currently instructs a Kellogg School of Management course entitled "Comprehensive Perspectives for Leading a Sports Entity." He has previously lectured in the Northwestern School of Continuing Studies' Master's in Sports Administration program.

Prior to arriving in Evanston, Phillips served as Northern Illinois' athletic director for four years beginning in 2004. During that time, the Huskies had unprecedented athletic success and consistent academic achievements. On July 1, 2006, Phillips was promoted to associate vice president, in addition to his director of athletics title, after already being recognized by his peers in the Mid-American Conference with his selection to serve as chairman of the MAC Athletic Directors' Council. He also was a member of the NCAA Women's Basketball committee during his time in the MAC and was awarded the 2007 General Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletic Director Award from the All-American Football Foundation.

Phillips was extraordinarily successful in fund raising and marketing at Northern Illinois. He spearheaded the fund raising and construction of the $14-million Yordon Academic and Athletic Performance Center at NIU, the largest capital project in athletics history at NIU, and led several successful fund-raising campaigns for athletics. In addition, the Huskies opened an indoor practice facility for baseball, softball and men's and women's golf and began construction in the spring of 2008 on a new soccer/track and field complex.

During Phillips' tenure at NIU, he was instrumental in scheduling high-profile football games against Michigan and Ohio State that resulted in the first national television appearances for NIU. He also negotiated playing the University of Iowa in 2007 at Soldier Field in Chicago as a home game at NIU, a game that sold out in less than a week. In addition, Phillips negotiated a multiple-year agreement for the radio power WSCR-AM (The Score) to carry football, men's basketball and a weekly NIU live radio show to discuss all Huskie athletic programs. Phillips also negotiated a television deal with Comcast SportsNet Chicago to carry football games and a weekly show called Inside Huskie Sports.

Phillips helped secure the 2007 NCAA Men's Golf Central Regional, which the Huskies hosted at the new home of NIU golf, Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill.

A 1990 graduate of the University of Illinois, Phillips started his career as a manager and student assistant in Illinois' athletic department. He earned a master's degree in education at Arizona State University while serving as a restricted earnings basketball coach during a period in which the Sun Devils reached the postseason in five-straight years.

Phillips also holds a Ph.D. in educational administration from Tennessee, which he completed in the summer of 2007. Phillips served as an assistant athletics director with the Volunteers until 2000. He directed a $12.4 million annual athletics giving program, and was directly responsible for identifying, cultivating and soliciting all major gifts and donations for the Volunteer athletic program. He helped originate the first-ever capital campaign for athletics at UT that raised over $50 million for endowments, facilities and programs. In addition, he supervised several athletic programs and a variety of other areas.

Phillips then moved to the University of Notre Dame in 2000, where he served as associate director of athletics and senior associate director of athletics for external affairs. During 2002-03, he helped launch the Rockne Heritage Fund, which became the first athletics annual fund that directly benefited student-athlete grant-in-aid scholarships. In addition, he managed the ticket office, various corporate sponsorships, athletic programs and a weekly Irish radio show.

At the same time, Phillips played an integral part in the funding of a new $24-million, 96,000-square foot athletics facility. At Notre Dame, Phillips directed all phases of the athletics community relations program and helped develop new institutional and departmental advancement programs.

Phillips and his wife, Laura, have five children: Luke, Madeline, Meredith, John and James.

 

 

The Phillips family (clockwise from top left): Luke, Madeline, Jim, John, Meredith, James and Laura