Oct. 31, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Sandy Barbour, in her second year as a member of the senior athletic administrative staff at the University of Notre Dame, has been promoted to senior associate athletics director under director of athletics Kevin White.
Barbour, who served as athletic director at Tulane from 1996-99, joined White’s staff as associate athletic director for compliance and administration at Notre Dame in the summer of 2000.
She continues to oversee the areas of eligibility, interpretations, compliance education and NCAA certification – and she now has additional senior level responsibilities while assisting in the day-to-day operation of the department.
She is the sport administrator for women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s cross country and track and supervises the athletic training and strength and conditioning units. She also assists White with administration responsibilities for women’s basketball.
“Sandy is a highly seasoned and skilled athletics administrator,” says White.
“Over the years Sandy has always found just the right way to articulate both the departmental and university-wide mission and, more importantly, she has provided the leadership and managerial ability to bring the expressed vision to reality.”
Barbour was appointed athletic director at Tulane when White left to become director of athletics at Arizona State University. She previously had served from 1991-96 as senior associate athletic director at Tulane under White in the areas of internal operations and compliance and spent eight years total on the school’s athletic administrative staff. During her three-year tenure as athletic director, Green Wave teams won 12 conference championships. In her first year, 1996-97, Tulane won four conference titles, a feat never before accomplished in the history of Tulane athletics. In 1998, the football team posted a perfect 12-0 record and won the Liberty Bowl with a victory over Brigham Young, while the Green Wave captured six conference titles, another school record.
One of eight female athletic directors at Division I-A schools at the time, Barbour was chair of the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee and a member of the Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet and the board of directors of the National Association of Collegiate Women’s Athletic Administrators.
In her associate’s role at Tulane, she oversaw all matters related to internal operations, including supervision of intercollegiate programs, compliance with NCAA and Conference USA rules, academic student life, business affairs, facilities and recruiting. Barbour was part of the administrative team that navigated the successful transition to Conference USA and helped the school maintain one of the top Division I-A graduation rates.
As senior women’s administrator, Barbour was elected chair of the inaugural Conference USA committee for SWAs and served on the league’s executive committee. In addition, she chaired the executive committee for the 1993 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Tulane.
A native of Annapolis, Md., Barbour spent seven years at Northwestern University prior to joining the Tulane staff. At Northwestern from 1982 through 1989, she began as assistant field hockey and lacrosse coach and director of athletic recruiting services, then in ’84 became assistant athletic director for intercollegiate programs, overseeing 15 Olympic sports.
Born Dec. 2, 1959, Barbour is a 1981 honors graduate of Wake Forest University with a degree in physical education. A two-sport athlete at the school, she was the captain of the field hockey team and a member of the women’s basketball squad. Barbour earned a master’s degree in sports management from Massachusetts in 1983 and received an MBA from Northwestern’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1991. In ’97, she was named Massachusetts’ Distinguished Alumnus in Sports Management.