Mack Rhoades
Mack B. Rhoades, IV, who has provided outstanding leadership and vision for three NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision athletic programs, was named Baylor University’s Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics on July 13, 2016.
Rhoades joined the Baylor family from the University of Missouri, where he spent the previous year (2015-16) leading the 20-sport Southeastern Conference intercollegiate athletics department, and he previously served in similar capacities at the University of Houston (2009-15) and the University of Akron (2006-09).
Before moving to Missouri, Rhoades enjoyed five-and-a-half rewarding years guiding the athletic fortunes at the University of Houston as Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics. He reignited the Cougars’ entire program, hiring 14 new head coaches, including 2015 FWAA First-Year Coach of the Year Tom Herman.
Known as an outstanding fundraiser, Houston raised nearly $100M and constructed $160M in new facilities during his tenure, including a new on-campus football stadium, a men’s and women’s basketball training center, a golf academy and a short game facility. Rhoades also negotiated one of the nation’s top five facility naming rights agreements at the collegiate level and secured a new multi-media rights deal for Houston. Cougar Pride, Houston Athletics’ fundraising arm, set an annual donation record for the fifth-consecutive year in 2013-14 as more than 3,100 Cougar Pride members contributed $4.5M to eclipse the previous mark of $3.5M set the previous year.
Rhoades went to Akron after seven years at UTEP, where he worked his way up the department ranks to become the Miners Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director after starting as Assistant Athletics Director for Development. In his final position at UTEP, Rhoades oversaw all fundraising, the marketing and media relations offices as well as football external operations, men’s basketball, men’s golf, licensing, Miner Athletic Club and the athletics ticket office.
Rhoades, who holds a bachelor’s degree in health sciences from the University of Arizona (1993) and a master’s of science degree in athletics administration/sports management from Indiana University (2002), began his intercollegiate athletics career as a marketing assistant in the Yale athletic department (1996) and worked in development at Marquette (1997-98) before joining the UTEP staff in 1998.
Mack and his wife, Amy, have three daughters – Nicolette, Natalie (husband, Andrew Charbine) and Noelle (husband, Mason Schlotzhauer).
