University of Oklahoma Athletics

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Joe Castiglione
Director of Athletics

In four years as the director of athletics at the University of Oklahoma, Joe Castiglione has established a pattern of excellence that few in his profession could match.

While Castiglione would quickly point out that the credit belongs to the student-athletes and coaches, the staff and the university administration, the donors and the fans, someone had to make the first step, to take the lead. He has authored one of the most successful athletics eras ever witnessed at OU and an addition and expansion of facilities that is unmatched in Sooner history.

Using the mission of the Athletic Department "Inspiring Champions Today … Preparing Leaders for Tomorrow" as the basis for all decisions, Castiglione has made an unwavering commitment to excellence and to the student-athletes. His vision and ability have changed the face of intercollegiate athletics at the University of Oklahoma.

He has been honored by his peers for the success enjoyed at the University of Oklahoma in his tenure. In June 2001, he received the General Robert R. Neyland Athletic Director Award for lifetime achievement from the All-American Football Foundation. In 2000, he was named the Central Region AD of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). In October 2002, the OU Athletics Department was ranked as the third best in the nation for the 2001-02 academic year by Sports Illustrated.

The 11th director of athletics at the University of Oklahoma has celebrated three national championships, numerous top-10 NCAA finishes, record numbers of graduating student-athletes, dramatically increased donor giving, huge increases in ticket sales for all sports, major facility improvements and development and construction of new facilities. And through it all, he has been able to produce a balanced budget for the OU Athletic Department for the last four years, a first since the early 1990s.

It might be hard to find another athletics director who takes such great joy in celebrating the success of his student-athletes. And Castiglione has had much to celebrate. OU finished an all-time best of 17th in the 2001-2002 Sears Directors' Cup standings, bettering a No. 18 finish turned in during the previous school year. Sponsored by Sears and run by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, the Sears Cup annually rewards intercollegiate athletic programs for broad-based success in men and women's competition.

Oklahoma was the talk of college athletics during the 2001-02 school year when the Sooners went 11-2 with a Cotton Bowl championship and No. 6 ranking in football, sent both the men's and women's basketball teams to their respective Final Fours, won the NCAA men's gymnastics championship, finished third in wrestling and sixth in women's golf and sent the softball team to the Women's College World Series. Eleven of the school's 20 programs achieved a top 25 ranking.

The football and basketball teams combined to win 74 games, a record among college athletics programs. The athletics success coincided with announcements that Oklahoma had set a record for cumulative grade point average among its student-athletes and seen more Sooners achieve 3.0 and 4.0 grade point averages than at any time in the school's history.

The 2001-02 year was a continuation of a string of Sooner successes led by Castiglione. In 2000-01, the Sooners won the national championship in football, the men's gymnastics team finished second, the wrestling team was fourth and the softball team was fifth. Top-25 finishes were recorded by six other teams and five Sooner teams won conference championships. The 1999-2000 season saw the Sooners win the first national title produced by a women's team at OU when softball won the title in its first trip to the Women's College World Series. That finish combined with top finishes by other Sooner teams put OU in the top 25 ranking in the Sears Cup competition. His first year as the Sooner AD saw conference titles produced by wrestling, softball and men's gymnastics.

Athletics excellence made get the majority of the headlines but Castiglione demands that approach be taken in the academic efforts of the Sooners as well. His insistence that all coaches and staff share his passion for the department's mission is best demonstrated by the record number of Sooner student-athletes who are graduating from OU, by the academic honors won by Sooner student-athletes including the 2002 Division I Verizon Academic All-American of the Year Stacey Dales. Conference honor rolls and all-academic lists are filled with Sooners, academic All-Americans have been produced each years in Castiglione's tenure and record numbers of Sooners are earning 3.00 or better grade point averages each semester. In the fall of 1998, OU earned the NCAA/CHAMPS Life Skills Program of Excellence award given by the Division IA Athletic Directors Association.

Credited with energizing OU's fund-raising efforts, Castiglione practically re-invented the athletics department's major campaign, Great Expectations: The Campaign For Sooner Sports. Scheduled to end in October 2003, the campaign has already reached its goal of $100 million and the department has received 11 gifts in excess of $1 million during this campaign.

Chaired by OU President David L. Boren, members of the search committee knew they wanted a dynamic leader as they looked for OU's 11th athletic director. They knew they had selected a person who would lead the department to success in all endeavors when Castiglione was hired on April 30, 1998. They knew he was a bright, young leader on the collegiate athletic scene, and all they had to do to find the proof of that was look to Big 12 family member, Missouri.

In his 18-year career with the Tigers, Castiglione, who was named director of athletics at Missouri on Dec. 15, 1993, rebuilt the pride and infrastructure of the Mizzou Athletic Department. Many of the improvements at OU reflect those he initiated at Missouri included facility construction and renovation; increased fund-raising and marketing effort; and a multimedia rights agreement. He also developed Missouri's radio/television networks, among the largest and most innovative in the country, and created the Tigers' trademark licensing department.

Castiglione began his collegiate athletic career as a walk-on football player at the University of Maryland, giving him a unique perspective on the challenges faced by student-athletes. He worked as a student in the highly progressive sports marketing department at Maryland, and after graduation in 1979, he became the sports promotions director at Rice University with responsibilities for fundraising as well. He then worked a year as director of athletic fund-raising at Georgetown before being hired at Missouri as director of communications and marketing in 1981 by then-AD Dave Hart.

Castiglione is active in leadership on a conference and national level. He is serving as presdent of NACDA in 2002-03 and is a past president of the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association. He has served two terms as chair of the Big 12 Board of Athletics Directors, completing his second in 1999-2000. He served a four-year term on the NCAA Baseball Committee, was on the Championship/Competition Cabinet and is a member of the NCAA Football Special Events Certification Committee. In 1989, he was one of the founders of the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators, an organization he served four terms as president (1990-93). In 1997, he was honored by NACMA for his contributions to intercollegiate sports marketing. He was named to The Sporting News' Powers That Will Be List in 2000.

Locally, he is a board member with the Cleveland County United Way and is an executive board member with the Jim Thorpe Association.

A native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Castiglione was born Oct. 8, 1957. He is married to the former Kristen Bartel, a 1990 graduate of the University of Missouri. They are the proud parents of two sons, Joseph Robert, Jr., born in December 20, 1996, and Jonathan Edmund, born on March 21, 2000.