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  Jack Swarbrick
Jack Swarbrick

Player Profile
Position:
Director of Athletics

John 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 third year in 2010-11 as director of athletics at his alma mater.

Swarbrick already has attached his signature to a variety of new campus athletics department initiatives - based on five pillars of excellence, education, tradition, faith and community. Among the most noteworthy and current of those 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.
  • Restructuring Notre Dame's approach to sport administration through the assignment of a unique administrator to each of the 26 sports.

    • The past two years combined (2008-09 and 2009-10) have featured a variety of on-and off-the-field Notre Dame athletics successes:

  • Sixty-eight All-Americans, 14 Academic All-America selections and four NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship winners (most ever in a single year -- Brittany Bock and Matt Besler in soccer, Lauren Buck in rowing, Patrick Smyth in cross country).
  • Record involvement in community service hours by Irish student-athletes (6,302 in 2008-09).
  • NCAA runner-up team finishes in 2010 men's lacrosse (after an overtime loss in the NCAA championship game), 2009 fencing, and 2008 women's soccer (at 26-1, led by Hermann Trophy winner Kerri Hanks).
  • NCAA semifinal appearances in women's tennis in both 2009 and 2010 (marking the two most successful seasons in Irish women's tennis history) and in women's soccer in 2009 (with Randy Waldrum named national coach of the year), plus a 2010 third-place fencing finish (after both the men's and women's squads finished their regular seasons unbeaten and ranked number one).
  • The hockey team in 2008-09 ranked fourth in the final poll after winning Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season and postseason crowns. Men's lacrosse finished unbeaten at 15-0 in the 2009 regular season (and second in the final poll).
  • The hiring of new Irish head football coach Brian Kelly to start the 2010 season.
  • The decision to build a new, freestanding ice hockey arena, scheduled to open for the 2011-12 season.

    • The 2009-10 school year also featured dedications of new facilities for soccer and lacrosse - as well as opening of the new Purcell Pavilion within the south dome of the Joyce Center.

    The Irish claimed 2008-09 BIG EAST championship honors in women's soccer, men's swimming, women's swimming, women's lacrosse, rowing, softball, women's tennis and men's outdoor track and field - added a BIG EAST regular-season division crown in men's soccer - and secured CCHA hockey and Great Western Lacrosse League men's lacrosse titles. In 2009-10 Notre Dame programs claimed BIG EAST titles in women's soccer, volleyball (regular-season crown), women's swimming (a BIG EAST record 14th straight), men's indoor and outdoor track and field, rowing (seventh straight) and women's tennis - plus men's and women's Midwest Fencing Conference honors.

    Notre Dame ranked number one in the country (among Football Bowl Subdivision schools) in the two most recent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) surveys -- in 2008 with a 98 for all student-athletes (19 programs with perfect 100 scores) and in 2009 with a 99 (including a 97 score in football that 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. Using the federal graduation rate criteria, nine programs produced 100 percent rates in 2010 figures - and 11 ranked first in their respective sports.

    Another highlight of the 2008-09 school year was the yearlong Notre Dame Monogram Club program "Celebrating Over 60 Years of Success by Black Student-Athletes at Notre Dame."

    Swarbrick is currently a member of the new NCAA Values-Based Decision-Making Task Force.

    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, one of the largest in the state. He was made partner in 1987 and spent 28 years overall with the firm.

    At the same time that Swarbrick began his career, the city of Indianapolis was beginning its effort to become a world-class center for amateur and professional athletics. Swarbrick quickly became an instrumental figure in that initiative.

    As a member of the Indiana Sports Corporation, including the chairmanship from 1992 to 2001, Swarbrick led most of the city's successful proposals to a wide array of athletics organizations - from the National Football League (NFL) to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to the Big Ten Conference. His leadership efforts have resulted in the city:

  • Earning the right to play host to the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium. As vice president of the Indianapolis 2012 Super Bowl Committee, Swarbrick served as the architect of the city's bid and the presentation to the NFL owners.
  • Becoming the home of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national headquarters in 1999. He coordinated the city's efforts by assembling an incentive package, building community support and presenting Indianapolis in the bid process. His persistence helped deliver an extraordinary corporate partner for the community - the NCAA employs 400 people, creates an annual local operating impact of $63.5 million and offers direct impact to the community on a quadrennial basis of at least $100 million through its events.
  • Hosting the 1987 Pan American Games, where Swarbrick served as the director of competition.
  • Hosting the 1991 World Gymnastics Championships.
  • Hosting NCAA Men's Basketball Final Fours and other college championship competitions and a wide array of national and world championships in the Olympic sports. Indianapolis has played host to the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four six times since 1991 - and Swarbrick engineered an agreement in which the men's Final Four will be played in Indianapolis on an average of once every five years through 2039. The economic impact of that agreement may reach $1 billion.
  • Securing rights to host the Big Ten Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments at Conseco Fieldhouse for five consecutive years beginning in 2008 (Indianapolis now has played host to every women's Big Ten basketball tournament except one since 1995). Creative elements of the bid included a large job fair and endowed student-athlete scholarships.

    • He served as sports commissioner of the 1982 U.S. Olympic Festival in Indianapolis, competition director of the '87 Pan American Games, chairman of the '91 World Gymnastics Championships and an executive committee member for the 1994 World Rowing Championships in Indianapolis. He also served as a consultant to other communities playing host to or interested in attracting athletic events.

    Swarbrick's practice at Baker & Daniels focused on the representation of owners of sports teams and organizations that sanction or conduct athletic competitions. He 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.
  • Developed the business plan for the new NBA/NCAA youth basketball enterprise, iHoops.
  • Served as a member of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Discussion Group.
  • Chaired the NCAA/USOC task force dedicated to developing proposals to expand sponsorship of Olympic sports among NCAA member institutions.

    • 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 he was honored by the State of Indiana with the Sagamore of the Wabash Award. In 2002 he received the Pathfinder Award from Youthlinks Indiana for his service to youth in the state of Indiana.

    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 senior at Wake Forest University; Cal, a freshman at TCU; and Christopher, a high school senior.

     
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