Indiana University president Michael A. McRobbie has appointed current IU deputy athletic director Scott Dolson as the next athletic director, Indiana University announced via a press release.
Indiana University president Michael A. McRobbie has appointed current IU deputy athletic director Scott Dolson as the next athletic director, Indiana University announced via a press release. The appointment is subject for formal approval during the IU Board of Trustees meeting in April.
"Given his background and experience in helping to oversee the recent growth and development of nearly every major area of IU's large athletics operation, Scott is extremely well-positioned to lead our intercollegiate athletics program and further its longstanding and storied traditions of excellence as well as build on Fred Glass' outstanding achievements of the last 10 years," McRobbie said in the release. "For more than two decades at IU, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to ensuring that our student athletes achieve success both on and off the field, compete within the rules and represent IU with passion, integrity and distinction."
Dolson will take over for current Indiana athletic director Fred Glass, who announced in mid-December that he will retire at the end of the 2019-20 academic year. Dolson graduated from Indiana University and has served in his current position since 2009, after spending seven years as the head of the Varsity Club.
He currently oversees "all internal and external operations within the department" and directly supervises Indiana Basketball.
Dolson has, notably, contributed to and overseen many of the changes Glass had directed within the program in recent years, including the university's Bicentennial Facilities Master Plan for IU Athletics. That includes $150 million toward projects such as the North End Zone Student-Athlete Development Center, the Henke Hall of Champions, the D. Ames Shuel Academic Center, Bart Kaufman Field, the Andy Mohr Softball Field, the Cook Hall basketball practice facility, the renovated Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, the enclosure of the South End Zone of Memorial Stadium, which is home to the Excellence Academy, and Wilkinson Hall, IU's new home for its volleyball and wrestling teams.
What Dolson can aid in providing is a continuation of those efforts and a progression of the marks in attendance and exposure, as well as continue Glass' leadership within the department.
A 14-person committee, led by IU Vice President for Government Relations and Economic Engagement Bill Stephan, was appointed to pin the next athletic director at Indiana and considered Dolson among other names, such as Temple athletic director and former IU football player Pat Kraft.
"The committee reviewed a number of highly qualified candidates from around the country who were attracted to IU's athletics traditions and values, culture of success and consistently well-run programs," Stephan said. "In the end, we found in Scott Dolson an individual who possessed the right combination of experience, integrity, drive and passion for IU sports to lead our athletics program toward a bright and banner-achieving future."
A native of Michigan City, Indiana, Dolson graduated from Indiana with a degree in management and worked as a manager for the IU Basketball team for four seasons, including one season as the head manager in 1988.
"I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to lead the Indiana University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, a place I have served for more than two decades and have long had a tremendous love and passion for," Dolson said.
----
• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals
• Like us on Facebook.
