Gene Smith was named to the Fiesta Sports Foundation Board of Directors in 2021.
Smith recently retired from his role as Senior Vice President and Wolfe Foundation Athletic Director at Ohio State University in June 2024. Smith previously led the athletics department at Ohio State since 2005 and was a key player in some of college athletics’ biggest initiatives. He co-chaired the NCAA’s Federal State Legislative Working Group that guided the NCAA on name, image and likeness, served on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, was a member of the NCAA’s Management Council, the Committee on Infractions, the Executive Committee, the Football Rules Committee and the President’s Commission Liaison Committee.
Having served as the first Black president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and past president of the Division I-A Athletics Directors Association, Smith was Director of Athletics at Arizona State from 2000-05, led the Iowa State athletics program for seven years and oversaw athletics at Eastern Michigan from 1986-93.
Smith played football as an undergraduate at Notre Dame, where he was a defensive end on the 1973 national championship team and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He joined the coaching staff after graduation, helping the Irish to the 1977 national championship and staying at Notre Dame until 1981, when he went to work for IBM in a marketing position. Two years later, he returned to collegiate athletics as assistant athletics director at Eastern Michigan before climbing the ranks as one of the most influential athletics administrators nationwide.
