Gene Smith (athletic director)

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Gene Smith is currently the athletic director for The Ohio State University. He was named the university's eighth athletic director on March 5, 2005. Prior to his tenure at Ohio State, he served as athletic director for Arizona State, Eastern Michigan, and Iowa State. He oversees one of the biggest athletics programs, with 36 varsity sports and more than 900 student athletes.

He was also identified as Black Enterprise's "50 most powerful African-Americans in sports". He has previous affiliations with the NCAA Management Council, the NCAA committee on Infractions, the Rose Bowl Management Committee, and the NCAA Football Rules Committee. Smith was named to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Committee in 2006.^[1]

[edit] Biography

He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, attended St. Peter Chanel High School in Bedford, Ohio, and attended the University of Notre Dame on a football scholarship. He played four years of football as a defensive end for the Irish and was a member of the 1973 Associated Press national championship team. Smith received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Notre Dame in 1977. Following graduation, he joined the Notre Dame coaching staff under Dan Devine and remained in that capacity until 1981. The 1977 team captured the undisputed national championship.

He left Notre Dame following the 1981 season to accept a marketing position with IBM. He returned to college athletics in April of 1983 as assistant athletics director at Eastern Michigan University. In 1985, Smith was named interim director of athletics at Eastern, a position he held until 1986 when he became the director on a full-time basis.