Beth Goetz has been named the 13th director of athletics at the University of Iowa. The UMSL alum and former women’s soccer coach and administrator is the first woman to hold the position. (Photo courtesy of University of Iowa)
Beth Goetz, who got her start in athletics administration at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, has ascended to one of the top jobs in college sports.
Last Thursday, the University of Iowa named her the next Henry B. and Patricia B. Tippie Director of Athletics Chair after she served in the role on an interim basis at the Big Ten Conference program since Aug. 2.
“Beth is a talented and dynamic leader and the national search we conducted has substantiated that she is the best athletics director for the University of Iowa,” Iowa President Barbara Wilson said in a news release announcing Goetz’s appointment. “She has done a remarkable job as interim, and I am confident she will lead our athletics department and student-athletes to new levels of achievement both on the field of play and in the classroom.”
She becomes the 13th athletic director in Iowa history and is the first woman to hold the role. She is also the only female athletic director in the Big Ten, one of the nation’s premier NCAA Division I conferences.
“I am truly honored and humbled to lead Iowa’s storied athletics program, and I am grateful to President Wilson and the search committee for their confidence in my leadership,” Goetz said in a statement. “The University of Iowa is a world-class institution with a demonstrated commitment to athletics excellence, and I look forward to continuing to partner with our coaches and staff in support of all our student-athletes. It is a privilege to serve our campus and our passionate Hawkeye supporters.”
Goetz grew up in Florissant, Missouri, and excelled at soccer, playing collegiately at Clemson University. When her playing career ended, she returned home and enrolled in the UMSL College of Education to pursue a master’s degree in family therapy.
Her college coaches convinced her to try her hand at coaching while she worked toward her master’s, and she joined then-Coach Ken Hudson’s staff as an assistant women’s soccer coach. Within a year, Hudson resigned and Goetz took over the head coaching position. She compiled a record of 120-90-9 between 1998-2008. In her last seven years, Goetz also served as an assistant athletic director under Lori Flanagan, starting her on the path to her latest role.
Goetz, who was inducted into the UMSL Sports Hall of Fame in 2014, left St. Louis in 2008 to become assistant athletic director for compliance and senior woman administrator at Butler University in Indianapolis. She later served as the deputy athletic director at the University of Minnesota from 2013-2015 and filled in as interim athletic director during the 2015-16 season.
From there, Goetz went to the University of Connecticut, where she held the title of chief operating officer and senior woman administrator from 2016-18.
Ball State University hired her as its director of athletics in 2018, and she remained in that post for four years before moving to Iowa to be deputy director of athletics and chief operating officer. Many speculated when she took the job that she would be in line to replace Gary Barta whenever he retired as director of athletics. Barta left his post after 17 years on Aug. 1, and Goetz’s time has now arrived.
