Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/368554
s soon as her introductory news conference wrapped up, new Penn State athletics director Sandy Bar- bour stepped out into Beaver Sta- dium, accompanied by university president Eric Barron and football coach James Franklin. The trio lined up for the obligatory series of photos, standing side by side and smiling for the cameras. At least one of those shots is surely destined for a spot in the back pages of Penn State's 2015 football media guide. But it was the last shot of the day that turned heads. At Franklin's insistence, every- one lined up in the coach's trademark pho- to-op pose, jabbing their index fingers in the air as if to say, "We're No. 1." It's a pose that over the past seven months has been adopted and parodied and meme-ified by Penn State followers, and yet it seemed somehow ap- propriate on the day of Barbour's arrival. Her goal, which she stated several times for em- phasis at the July 26 presser, is to fashion Penn State's athletic program into the nation's best – not just at football, wrestling and women's volleyball, the sports with which it is most readily identified, but at everything. "We're going to aspire to win national championships in 31 sports," she said. "We're going to look at the conditions for success. What does it take to be successful in football? What does it take to be successful in the competitive environment in this conference and this country in men's basketball, in lacrosse, in field hockey, in wrestling, in fencing? We're going to get after winning a national championship in each and every one of those." Hyperbole? Perhaps. Penn State has won 15 national championships since March 2007, and even that's an outlandish total; only USC, with 16 titles, has won more in the past seven years. But over the previous decade, during which she served as athletics director at Cal, Bar- bour built a track record that suggests she is prepared to take over a massive athletic operation such as Penn State's, which has a $115 million annual budget, 300 full-time staffers and more than 800 student-athletes. While she was their AD, the Golden Bears won 19 team national championships and 111 individual, relay and boat national titles, and they finished in the top 10 of the Di- BARBOUR AIMS HIGH New athletics director says goal is for all of PSU's varsity teams to be nationally competitive | A THE BARBOUR FILE BORN Dec. 2, 1959 HOMETOWN Annapolis, Md. EDUCATION Graduated cum laude from Wake Forest in 1981. Later earned postgrad- uate degrees in sports man- agement from Massachu- setts and Northwestern. ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE Began career at Northwest- ern, starting out as director of recruiting services and later becoming assistant athletic director in 1984. Joined Tulane in 1991 as an associate athletic director and five years later was named director of intercolle- giate athletics. Left for Notre Dame in 2000 and spent four years in South Bend, rising to the position of deputy direc- tor of athletics. Was hired by Cal in 2004 as athletics di- rector, a position she held for 10 years. COACHING EXPERIENCE Served as an assistant field hockey coach and an administrative assistant in lacrosse at Mas- sachusetts from 1981-82 be- fore leaving in August 1982 for Northwestern, where she was on the field hockey and lacrosse staffs. PLAYING EXPERIENCE Was a four-year letterwinner and captain of the field hockey team at Wake Forest. Also played varsity basketball for two seasons.

