Saturday, September 6, 2008

10:00 a.m. at Alumni Hall

Craig Littlepage, Director, University of Virginia Athletic Department

Sports Talk: Current Trends in College Sports

Craig Littlepage

Craig Littlepage, Director of University of Virginia’s Athletic Department will share with the More Than the Score audience his thoughts on some of the interesting headlines that dominate the news in college sports. Littlepage's knowledge of the NCAA and ACC leagues is astonishing, having served on the NCAA Division I Infractions Committee and the NCAA Academics, Eligibility and Compliance Cabinet and on the Recruiting and Student-Athlete Reinstatement Subcommittees. He chaired the Reinstatement Subcommittee in 1999-2000. 

Watch a video introduction to Craig Littlepage's presentation "Trends in Intercollegiate Sports."

Bio

Committed to preserving and building on U.Va.'s longstanding tradition of academic and athletic excellence, Craig Littlepage is in his sixth year as Virginia's Athletics Director. He was named to that post in August 2001.

Before becoming the University's ninth Athletic Director, Littlepage served as interim athletics director beginning June 1, 2001, following the retirement of former athletics director Terry Holland who became a special assistant to President John Casteen, III. Littlepage also served as interim athletics director at Virginia from December of 1994 to July of 1995, while a search was conducted to replace former U.Va. athletics director Jim Copeland.

The first African-American athletics director in Atlantic Coast Conference history, Littlepage was named the Black Coaches Association's "Athletics Administrator of the Year" in 2003 and 2006. He was also listed on Sports Illustrated list of the 101 most influential minorities in sports in 2003 and 2004. In March of 2005, Littlepage was named one of Black Enterprise Magazine's "Most Powerful African-Americans in Sports."

Littlepage has been a member of U.Va.'s athletics administration since 1990. He served six years (1995-2001) as senior associate director of athletics, managing all aspects of the athletics department's day-to-day operations. Before that, he spent four years as associate director of athletics for programs. He originally joined Virginia's athletics administrative staff in 1990 as an assistant athletics director.

The 56-year-old Littlepage presides over a vibrant 25-sport athletics program that regularly vies for state, conference and national titles in many sports. At the same time, Cavalier student-athletes graduate at a rate comparable to the student body as a whole. Annually, UVa student-athletes rank among the top Division I-A public universities in the country in graduation rates.

Five years ago, Littlepage outlined a number of ambitious 10-year goals for the department-to be achieved by 2012: graduate 100 percent of its student-athletes; win 12 national championships and 70 conference titles; fully endow all scholarships and provide the operational support required to meet all other stated goals; build and maintain high-quality facilities; annually recruit the best student-athletes in the country (based on how coaches rate their top prospects); and fully comply with Title IX.

Such goals reflect Littlepage's vision of "uncompromised excellence in intercollegiate athletics" as well as the department's overall mission to "enhance and support the intellectual purpose of the University and its exemplary academic standards and traditions."

During the 2006-07 academic year, Cavalier teams and individual student-athletes continued the department's ascension toward achieving broad-based success in all sports. Virginia claimed four ACC titles (Women's Lacrosse, Women's Rowing, Men's basketball and Men's Tennis) in 2006-07. Somdev Devvarman won the NCAA men's tennis singles championship; the Varsity Four rowing team captured the NCAA title while helping the Cavaliers to their third second-place at the event. Women's lacrosse reached the finals of the NCAA Championship. Overall, individuals or teams from 20 sports represented UVA in postseason play. The Cavaliers also won the Commonwealth Challenge athletics competition with state rival Virginia Tech for the second straight year.


Littlepage has held many leadership roles within the NCAA, ACC and University-at-large. In February of 2002, he was appointed to the 10-member Division I Men's Basketball Committee by the NCAA Championship/Competition Cabinet and served a five-year term which was completed Aug. 31, 2007. In 2005-06, Littlepage served a one-year stint as the chair of the Men's Division I Basketball Committee and administered a selection process that produced one of the most exciting tournaments in NCAA basketball championship history.

Littlepage previously was a member of the NCAA Division I Infractions Committee and the NCAA Academics, Eligibility and Compliance Cabinet, serving on the Recruiting and Student-Athlete Reinstatement Subcommittees. He chaired the Reinstatement Subcommittee in 1999-2000.

Littlepage is a member of the Associate Faculty for the University's Center for Alcohol and Substance Education, and participates in various alcohol and drug prevention/education conferences. He also served the NCAA on committees that studied sports wagering, postgame crowd control, basketball issues, and the College Basketball Partnership and also participated as a presenter to the NCAA's Ethnic Minority Male Institute. He has previously chaired the ACC Student-Athlete Welfare Committee, the ACC Men's and Women's Swimming/Diving Committees, and the ACC Men's Soccer Committee; and he currently is the chairman of the ACC Women's Basketball Committee, and the ACC Committee on Awards. He also has been active in the local community, having served on the Board of Directors for the Charlottesville Ronald McDonald House and serving as a Trustee with the Mount Zion Baptist Church. He is also on the Board of Trustees at Saint Anne's Belfield School.

Before beginning his career in athletics administration, Littlepage served two stints as an assistant coach with the Cavalier men's basketball program, from 1976 to 1982 and from 1988 to 1990.

Littlepage held head coaching positions at Pennsylvania (1982-85) and at Rutgers (1985-88) before returning to Virginia. While he was at Penn, the Quakers won the Ivy League championship and participated in the 1985 NCAA Tournament. Littlepage was an assistant basketball coach at Villanova for two years and at Yale for one year before joining the U.Va. basketball program as an assistant coach in 1976. The LaMott, Pa., native earned his Bachelor's degree in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1973. He was a member of three Ivy League basketball championship teams at Penn and was instrumental in the Quakers' drive to three consecutive NCAA Eastern Regional playoff appearances.