Lisa Love:

 Leader at the NCAA Division I-A Level

Lisa Love ASU Profile

Few people who have encountered Lisa Love as an opposing player, opposing coach, interviewee, or employee would ever guess that she doesn’t even consider herself the most competitive member of her immediate family. The youngest of three daughters born to a talented football and tennis player and a life master duplicate bridge player, competition was king, or perhaps more appropriately queen, in Lisa Love’s household. “In my family of five, I’m probably the fourth most competitive. It didn’t matter if we were playing table games like Scrabble or cards or charades or backyard badminton or anything. We grew up playing, competing, and enjoying it.”¹ Described by her colleagues as a “competitor” and a “dynamo,” Love rose through the ranks of collegiate coaching and administration to embrace the role of vice president for university athletics at Arizona State University (ASU), making her one of only six female athletic directors at the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision institutions. Since her 2005 hiring, Love’s leadership, vision, and tireless commitment to excellence have pushed Arizona State into a new era of athletic accomplishment and recognition.

Love’s passion for athletics was born from the competitive environment of her family. Father Tom Love quickly turned his three little girls into competent, confident wide receivers for backyard football contests. “Sports were a part of our fabric growing up. I loved it. And I always wanted a career in it.”² Love, trained to be tough through constant battles with her older sisters, grew into an excellent volleyball player, eventually starring at Texas Tech. After spending four years as a starter and earning all-region accolades, Love turned her attention to teaching the game she loved as head coach at Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas.

After five successful years at Bowie, Love was tapped to take the helm of the volleyball team at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she turned the program into a nationally recognized powerhouse after only seven seasons. Following her final season at Texas Arlington, one in which her team achieved a 30-4 record, she garnered National Coach of the Year honors. Love’s intensity, skill, and coaching prowess were soon recognized by larger, more prominent athletic departments. In 1989, Love left Texas Arlington to become head volleyball coach at USC, a position that she would hold for 10 seasons. During her tenure, Love led the Trojans to eight finishes in the national top 15 and nine National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament berths while simultaneously adopting an increasing level of administrative responsibility within the USC athletic department. By 1991, Love had left coaching in order to pursue athletic administration full-time with the Trojans, eventually rising to the role of senior associate athletic director. Love was a rising star, known for her foresight, wisdom, and ability to mesh and manage the sometimes disparate needs of a large athletic department.

In 2005, Arizona State president Michael Crow was tasked with hiring a new athletic director, a hugely important task for a university that was striving for excellence on a national stage. Crow interviewed a number of advocates, but fell in love with Love. “She was far and away the best candidate in terms of energy, coaching drive, and just raw talent than anyone I interviewed. She had the perfect combination of drive, skills, and coaching instincts.”³ Some skepticism followed Love’s hiring, particularly among the Sun Devil boosters, but Love’s confidence and commitment to the best interests of ASU athletics were unshakable. Within the first two years of her tenure, Love fired the two most prominent coaches on campus, the leaders of the underperforming football and men’s basketball teams. She replaced them with highly motivated, experienced, and capable coaches who shared her vision for a future of elite-level Sun Devil athletics. Just as President Crow had done, the boosters couldn’t help but love Love.

Love’s time as athletic director has been characterized by an ever-rising level of unprecedented success for Arizona State. The football and men’s basketball teams have consistently increased in strength on a national level. During 2007, the women’s track team won an indoor title, the women’s golf team achieved a number one ranking in national polls, and the women’s basketball team reached the Elite Eight. The softball team, headed by another of Love’s early coaching hires, won the 2008 Women’s College World Series in dramatic fashion. All of these individual triumphs have added up to increased recognition of ASU as an athletic program to be respected. In 2008, the Sun Devils were ranked fourth in the prestigious Director’s Cup standings and were named the best program in the nation by Sports Illustrated. Donations have begun to flow into athletics and strategically planned capital improvement projects are in the process of being completed. But is Love comfortably satisfied? “I have a very strong belief of what this school is capable of. We’re not anywhere near where I think we can be.”⁴

Lisa Love, an inductee into multiple volleyball Halls of Fame, has grown from a talented young athlete into a high-profile athletic administrator committed to positively impacting the lives of today’s talented young athletes. In an era where few women have been called upon to captain the athletic departments of major universities, Love has served as a brilliant example for all young women considering careers in athletic management. Her story is one of strategic intelligence and pure grit, exactly what one could expect of the child of a master bridge player and football star. Although she may not be the most competitive member of her immediate family, many regard her as not only the leader, but also the most competitive member of the Arizona State Sun Devil family.

 

Notes

1. Alex Espinoza, “The Lisa Love Effect,” ASU Web Devil, July 21, 2008.

2. George J. Tanber, “Love guiding light at ASU,” NCAA, ESPN.com, March 30, 2007.

3. Tanber, “Love guiding light at ASU.”

4. Scott Bordow, “ASU Athletics Experiencing More Than Just Wins,” East Valley Tribune, April 8, 2008.

This excerpt was written by Catherine Lahey.