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AROUND THE QUADS

Reeves To Retire After 12 Years as Director of Athletics

John Reeves has announced his retirement, effective June 30, after 12 years as Columbia’s director of physical education and intercollegiate athletics. No replacement has been named.

In accepting Reeves’s resignation, President Lee C. Bollinger remarked, “John has accomplished so much during his tenure. Facilities have been substantially improved and most importantly, the opportunities for all students to participate in competitive programs have been enhanced significantly.”

John Reeves (left) makes a point to Dean Austin Quigley at the 2000 Alexander Hamilton Awards Dinner. PHOTO: Eileen Barroso

Columbia has struggled recently, however, in the marquee intercollegiate sports of football and men’s basketball. Those teams were winless in Ivy competition in 2002–03, after having been more competitive earlier in Reeves’s tenure, and new coaches have been hired for both programs. Bob Shoop took over as football coach last fall, and Joe Jones is completing his first season as men’s basketball coach.

“I think, especially with the hiring of some new, young, very competent coaches, the department is poised and ready to really do what we all want to do, and that is to contend for a championship in the Ivy League for every sport, every year,” Reeves told Spectator. “I think it’s a mutually beneficial time to move over and introduce some new leadership.”

Reeves ushered in an era of financial stability for the athletics department, erasing the last of a $450,000 budget deficit in 1997 to achieve a balanced budget for the first time in years. He helped to create new sources of income, which resulted in a 36 percent rise in enhancement gift income and the establishment of several new endowments.

Under Reeves, softball, women’s lacrosse, field hockey and women’s golf became varsity sports, and there have been several major upgrades in the University’s athletic facilities. These include the installation of artificial turf at Baker Field in 1995 to accommodate field hockey and lacrosse, the opening of the Aldo T. “Buff” Donelli Strength Room for all varsity athletes in 1995 and the renovation of the Dodge Physical Fitness Center in 1996 to include a three-level fitness center. Crew and tennis facilities also have been upgraded and are being further enhanced.

Reeves has been involved in athletics his entire professional life. He was named head soccer coach and intramural director at Bloomfield College just out of college, at 23, and served as soccer coach and athletics director at Drew and as athletics director at Rochester and Stony Brook before coming to Columbia. He serves on the NCAA Division I men’s soccer committee, was a longtime member of the NCAA Division III Championships Committee and the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics and was president of the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America from 1986–88. He has published numerous articles and co-authored, with Malcolm J. Simon of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, six books on soccer.

Alex Sachare ’71

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