Bernard Muir, the Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics at Stanford University, has been presented the 2016 Carl Maddox Sport Management Award from the United States Sports Academy.
The award recently was presented by Academy Trustee Dr. Gary Cunningham at a ceremony at Stanford.
The Carl Maddox Sport Management Award, named in honor of the former athletic director at Louisiana State University and Mississippi State University, Corbet Award Winner and United States Sports Academy Board of Trustees member, is given annually to an individual for his or her contributions to the growth and development of sport enterprise through effective management practices. The individual should exhibit mastery of all the management functions, be well known in the sport arena, and have an abiding belief in the need for ethical behavior in sport management.
Through four seasons under Muir’s leadership, Stanford extended two of the most unfathomable streaks in college athletics. In 2015-16, Stanford captured its 22nd consecutive Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, an award presented to the most successful all around intercollegiate athletics department in the nation. In the last 40 seasons the Cardinal has won at least one National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championship, the longest streak in the nation.
In 2015-16 the Cardinal captured NCAA titles in men’s soccer and women’s tennis, as well as the U.S. Collegiate championship in synchronized swimming and the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) national championship in lightweight rowing. Stanford has won 132 overall championships and 109 of those are NCAA titles. In addition, the Cardinal men won the university’s fourth Capital One Cup, awarded annually to the best men’s and women’s Division 1 college athletics programs.
Muir is also highly regarded for his commitment to academics as 17 of Stanford’s varsity teams received Academic Progress Rate (APR) Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA. In addition, 14 Stanford teams earned perfect 1,000 scores for the multi-year rate using data collected over the previous four academic terms.
In addition to its 36 varsity sports programs, the university’s athletics department, physical education and recreation departments support campus-wide recreation, fitness and wellness programs.
Muir serves on the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Committee, which oversees all aspects of NCAA collegiate men’s Division 1 basketball and serves as the selection committee for the NCAA tournament. Last spring, Muir was named a finalist for the Athletic Director of the Year award for the Sports Business Journal Awards. In 2015, he received the NCAA’s Silver Anniversary Award, which recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of their collegiate athletics careers and celebrates their professional achievements.
Before joining Stanford in 2012, Muir served for more than 25 years in athletic administration roles at universities including Delaware, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Butler, and Auburn, as well as the NCAA. He was athletic director at Georgetown from 2005-2009 and Delaware from 2009-12.
Muir earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational and behavioral management at Brown University in 1990 and a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University in 1992.
The Carl Maddox Sport Management Award is part of the United States Sports Academy’s Awards of Sport, which each year serve as “A Tribute to the Artist and the Athlete.” The Academy presents the awards to pay tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport, in categories as diverse as the artist and the athlete in several different arenas of sport. The awards honor exemplary achievement in coaching, all-around athletic performance, courage, humanitarian activity, fitness, and media, among others. The Academy’s American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) annually recognizes these men and women through its Sport Artist of the Year, Honorary Doctorates, Distinguished Service Awards, Medallion Series, Outstanding Athletes, and Alumni of the Year awards.
Based in Daphne, Ala., the United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research, and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports. For more information about the Academy, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu .
Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of nearly 2,000 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.
By Eric Mann
Eric Mann is the communications assistant at the United States Sports Academy. Reach him at emann@ussa.edu.