IOWA CITY, Iowa — Beth Goetz was named athletics director at the University of Iowa on Thursday morning, the first time a woman has overseen the full department.
Goetz, 49, has served as interim athletics director since Aug. 2, 2023, following Gary Barta’s retirement. She was hired as deputy athletics director and chief operating officer for 11 months before replacing Barta.
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It’s a historical move for Iowa, which was the first public university to admit men and women on an equal basis. The only woman to hold a similar role at Iowa was Christine Grant, who was women’s athletics director from 1973 through her retirement in 2001. The department merged following Grant’s departure.
Goetz currently is the only female athletics director in the Big Ten.
Goetz’s background
Goetz grew up in Florissant, Mo., and earned All-America recognition at Brevard College (N.C.) as a women’s soccer player. She was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2017.
She transferred to Clemson, where she was a team captain as a starting midfielder in the program’s first season. Goetz became an assistant women’s soccer coach at Missouri-St. Louis in 1996 and then led the program as head coach from 1997-2008. She was inducted into the UMSL Hall of Fame in 2014.
Goetz served in administrative roles at Missouri-St. Louis (2001-08) and Butler (2008-13) before taking over as Minnesota’s deputy athletics director in 2013. In 2015, she became interim athletics director and was a finalist for the full-time position.
In 2016, Goetz was named chief operating officer at UConn, a role she held until 2018 when she became Ball State athletics director. In 2022, she left Ball State for Iowa.
Accomplishments and responsibilities
- Bachelor of Arts degree from Clemson in psychology, 1996. Master’s degree from Missouri-St. Louis, 2000.
- NCAA Competition Oversight Committee member, 2018
- NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee vice chair, 2021-22
- NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee chair, 2022-23
- Women Leaders in College Sports’ 2022 NCAA Division I FBS Nike Executive of the Year
- Indianapolis Business Journal’s 2021 Woman of Influence
- 120-90 in 11 seasons as UMSL women’s soccer coach
- Ball State won 10 Mid-American Conference titles, including seven in 2021-22, under Goetz
What are Goetz’s priorities?
Three of Iowa’s highest-profile coaches are in their 60s: football’s Kirk Ferentz (68), men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery (64) and women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder (62). Whoever landed the athletics director job might have to hire their replacements, and all three are the winningest coaches in Iowa history. For an athletics director, those are legacy-defining hires.
Goetz has made the relationship with Iowa’s Swarm Collective a priority along with creating a sustainable revenue-sharing model with athletes once a system becomes enacted.
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Additionally, there’s a feasibility study at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for a potential renovation. It also likely will include reseating the bowl with the students near the court.
“Moving people around is more complicated than it sounds,” Goetz said. “We want to honor and serve all of our longtime fans and season ticket holders. At the same time, you’re inviting your student body in. So this would be an opportunity while you’re making some shifts to sort of accomplish everything at once. But it’s hard to argue when you’re at those venues (that seats students near the floor) what a difference it makes.”
Providing leadership and building a cohesive unit also is vital at a place that has dealt with Title IX-related and racial discrimination lawsuits in recent years.
“From when the moment she stepped on campus, everybody could just sense and know how hard she worked,” said Iowa women’s basketball associate head coach Jan Jensen. “When we got to go on that (Final Four) run, she was with us and just working her tail off. I’d be up watching film and I’d go down and there’s Beth working.
“Just the way she did it, her confidence, making some decisions on the fly, how much she cared. And then when we get back, everybody’s saying that, even those that didn’t have a Final Four. I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, Beth was so good at that.’ Everybody was just like, ‘That’s our person.’”
Why Goetz got the job
Iowa began the search in late November with a 12-person committee chaired by co-faculty representative Nicole Grosland, UI’s associate dean for academic programs in the College of Engineering and a professor of biomedical engineering. After interviewing several sitting athletics directors from around the country, Goetz continued to emerge as the right candidate.
“Beth is a talented and dynamic leader and the national search we conducted has substantiated that she is the best athletics director for the University of Iowa,” University of Iowa president Barbara Wilson said in a statement. “She has done a remarkable job as interim, and I am confident she will lead our athletics department and student-athletes to new levels of achievement both on the field of play and in the classroom.”
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Goetz garnered significant support from the coaches, including those with high visibility and those at the Olympic level.
“Beth is a talented and experienced administrator with strong leadership skills,” said Iowa baseball coach Rick Heller, who also was a member of the search committee. “She has a proven track record of success everywhere she has been. Beth is the perfect choice to lead us into the new Big Ten and will be a strong voice for Hawkeye athletics nationwide.”
Bluder called Goetz a “unifying leader who communicates and listens with great effectiveness.”
Ferentz added that Goetz is “highly professional” and that he believes she is “well-equipped to navigate this new era of collegiate sports.”
Required reading
- Beth Goetz’s biggest asset in becoming Iowa Hawkeyes’ interim AD? ‘I was always curious’
- Iowa interim AD Beth Goetz can embrace change — that’s why she’s the right fit
- Five topics in Iowa City, starting with the hires that need to be made
(Top photo: Scott Dochterman / The Athletic)
