UVM News

Release Date: 05-07-2003

Robert Corran Named Director of Athletics

Author: Gordon Wayne Woodworth
Email: Gordon.Woodworth@uvm.edu
Phone: (802)656-1110 Fax: 802-656-3203

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Bob Corran, an experienced administrator with an extensive athletic background, is the new director of athletics at the University of Vermont. President Daniel Mark Fogel made the announcement today.

Corran, 53, is currently the director of intercollegiate athletics at the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD). In his six years at UMD, he has overseen an athletic program which includes 16 varsity sports, 500 student-athletes and a $5.1 million operating budget. His accomplishments at UMD include the development and implementation of a strategic plan; planning and implementing a women’s hockey program that has since won three consecutive NCAA Division I titles; a major restructuring and restaffing of the department; reorganization of athletic marketing and promotions activities; a four-fold increase in alumni donations and the planning and design of a campus sports and fitness center. During his tenure, the Bulldogs have won 58 conference championships, including 11 this year, along with the three NCAA titles in women’s hockey.

“We are thrilled that Bob Corran has agreed to become our new director of athletics,” President Fogel said. “His vision for the department and his proven ability as an innovative educator and leader in athletics will no doubt propel our athletic department to new heights.”

Corran is excited about his new position at Vermont.

“It is truly an honor and privilege to have this opportunity to serve the University of Vermont,” he said. “There is work to be done and challenges to be met but I am excited to get on with the task at hand knowing I will be among so many fine people of character and commitment. This is a very special place with a very bright future and I am thrilled to be part of it."

Corran went to UMD after a 12-year stint as director of athletics at the University of Calgary. During his tenure at Calgary, Corran served as president of the Canada West Universities Athletic Association for three years and was president of the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union, the Canadian equivalent of the NCAA, from 1990 to 1992.

A former three-sport athlete (hockey, football and lacrosse) at Ithaca College, Corran earned a bachelor of science degree in physical education from Ithaca in 1971 and went on to attain a master’s degree in education administration from Springfield College in 1978 and a Ph.D. from Ohio State in 1979. While at Ohio State, he served as an assistant coach for men’s ice hockey and taught undergraduate activity and professional theory courses.

Before earning his graduate degrees, Corran was a teacher and coach at MacKenzie Collegiate Institute in Toronto. Immediately after earning his Ph.D. from Ohio State, Corran was an assistant professor, head coach of men’s ice hockey and assistant football coach at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario. He later became the assistant dean for Sport and Recreation Services, a post he held from 1981 to 1985. He left Windsor to become the director of athletics at the University of Calgary in Alberta. While at Calgary, the school won 53 conference titles and 23 national championships, and Corran taught graduate and undergraduate courses in sport management with a focus on strategic planning and leadership.

In 1995-96, Corran took a fellowship leave from the University of Calgary to serve as a Visiting International Scholar at the University of California, where he led the Department of Athletics and Recreational Sports through a strategic planning initiative which included establishing a planning process and timelines; developing a departmental vision and accompanying mission statement; formulating strategic priorities for the department and establishing specific management goals, objectives and activities.

Corran has also taught graduate courses in sport management in Equador and Venezuala.

Born in Northern Ireland and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, he and his wife, Libby, have two sons – Patrick, 23, and Andrew, 20.

Corran is the eighth director of athletics in the modern era of Vermont Athletics and the third since 1973. He succeeds Rick Farnham ’69, who completes more than 30 years of service to his alma mater on June 30, 2003. Farnham has served as director of athletics for 11 years, and before that served the University as an assistant athletic director and coach. Denis Lambert ’54 served as director of athletics from 1973 to 1992.