Submit your questions for Ian now! Director of Athletics Ian McCaw
Welcome to "Ask Ian," a BaylorBears.com feature that gives fans a chance to learn about Baylor Athletics directly from Director of Athletics Ian McCaw. From time to time during the academic year, McCaw will answer readers' questions right here on BaylorBears.com. McCaw assumed the leadership of Baylor's 18-sport, Big 12 intercollegiate athletics program on Sept. 8, 2003.
Baylor experienced its most successful intercollegiate athletics year in 2004-05 which included winning the national championship in women's basketball, being national runner-up in men's tennis and finishing third in baseball at the College World Series. Baylor eclipsed the previous school record of two conference championships in one year by winning Big 12 regular season championships in baseball, women's basketball, men's tennis and women's tennis. BU added Big 12 tournament titles in women's basketball and men's tennis. Benedikt Dorsch and Zuzana Zemenova won the NCAA men's and women's singles championships while Darold Williamson won the NCAA title in the 400 meters.
A total of 10 Baylor teams finished the year ranked among the top 25 nationally with a school-record 12 teams advancing to NCAA postseason competition. Baylor finished fourth in the Big 12 and 25th nationally in the NACDA Directors' Cup, its highest ranking ever. At the same time, Baylor student-athletes led the Big 12 with a NCAA graduate rate of 78 percent, eight points higher than the school's general student population.
Baylor enjoyed one of its most comprehensively successful years in 2003-04 including winning the first NCAA team championship in school history along with five NCAA individual titles. The men's tennis team captured the NCAA team championship, while Benjamin Becker won the NCAA men's singles title, Jeremy Wariner won the NCAA indoor and outdoor 400 meter titles and the 4x400-meter relay team captured the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships.
Baylor had 10 teams advance to 2003-04 NCAA postseason competition including women's cross country, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field, women's basketball, softball, men's and women's golf and men's tennis. An 11th Baylor program, women's tennis, had an individual participate in the national championships. In the final NACDA Cup rankings, Baylor finished 47th, and seven of its programs were ranked in the nation's top 25 at season's end.
A five-year strategic plan for intercollegiate athletics was developed and implemented inclusive of department goals and objectives. Issues relating to the student-athlete experience, enhanced program competitiveness, equity, diversity, rules compliance, sporting conduct, external support, facility improvements and long-term financial stability were addressed.
McCaw is Baylor's 12th athletic director and came to Baylor from the University of Massachusetts, where he spent the previous year as director of athletics. Prior to his tenure at UMass, he served as Director of Athletics at Boston's Northeastern University from 1997 through 2002. Prior to that, McCaw served as senior associate athletic director for development and associate athletic director for external affairs from 1992-1997, while being named the school's interim director of athletics in 1996. He went to Tulane from the University of Maine, where he worked with virtually every aspect of athletic administration from 1986 to 1992.
He earned his master's degree in sport management from UMass in 1987, after receiving a bachelor's degree in sports administration at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1985. McCaw and his wife, Heather, are members of First Baptist Church of Woodway and the parents of four children: Christy, Paul, Callie and Corinne. McCaw is a member of the Board of Directors of Live Oak Classical School in Waco.
