2014 NC STATE FOOTBALL BOWL GUIDE / XXXX 1

2015 NC STATE FOOTBALL BOWL GUIDE / ADMINISTRATION
motto: “Wolfpack Unlimited: Refuse To Accept the Status
Quo.”
Yow’s expectations are clear and concise:
• Every sport with a full complement of scholarships should
be among the nation’s top 25, working towards the top 10
and competing for conference and national championships.
• Every student-athlete should be provided the opportunity
and resources to be as successful in the classroom as on the
field of competition.
• Every alumnus and supporter should be treated as a valued
customer, with dedicated service from athletics department
personnel.
In her first four years on the job, Yow has made significant
changes to the structure, branding and outcomes of the
athletics department.
She has hired nine new head coaches. The department has
established Wolfpack Sports Properties in a new working
agreement for multi-media rights with Learfield Communications;
a department-wide apparel agreement with Adidas;
and a new Five-Year Strategic Plan. She also led in the
creation of the comprehensive NC State Athletic Hall of
Fame, which inducted 10 members in its inaugural class
in 2012 and added another 10 members each in 2013 and
‘14.
The $14 million Close-King Indoor Practice Facility opened in July and Yow
also announced a major renovation for Reynolds Coliseum, the home of
multiple Wolfpack sports. In a joint venture with the university, a $35 million
renovation began in March to reconfigure the coliseum and to create a Walk of
Fame and History to honor NC State’s athletic legacy in all sports and to have
a permanent home for its Hall of Fame.
Yow knows the importance of her position, leading the gateway department
of the largest university in North Carolina. The ACC’s first female athletics
director also knows NC State’s reputation as a pioneering program that first
established basketball as a dominant sport in the South, was the first to integrate
varsity athletics in the Atlantic Coast Conference and was the first public
school in the state to dedicate full resources to women’s athletics.
Hardly unfamiliar to Wolfpack fans, the native of Gibsonville, N.C., has been
deeply connected to NC State since her youth, when her parents Hilton and
Lib Yow introduced their three daughters and one son to college athletics.
Later, she watched her older sister, Kay, become the first full-time women’s
coach in the state of North Carolina, when she was hired by then-athletics director
Willis Casey to coach NC State’s first three women’s sports: basketball,
volleyball and softball.
Debbie Yow served as a high school coach at Burlington’s Williams High
School and Gibsonville’s Eastern Guilford High before becoming the women’s
basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. She also served as the
head coach at Oral Roberts University and the University of Florida, before
switching career paths to become an administrator, at both Florida and UNC
Greensboro. In 1990, she was named the athletics director at Saint Louis,
where she hired Charlie Spoonhour as men’s basketball coach. In his first
season, Spoonhour was named ESPN National Coach of the Year.
Director of Athletics Debbie Yow with 2011 Belk Bowl MVP Mike Glennon.
At NC State, Yow oversees a department that includes approximately 185 fulltime
staff and 550 student-athletes.
Yow has served as president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors
of Athletics and the national Division I-A Athletic Directors Association. She
is a member of the National Football Foundation board of directors, and has
served on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Academic Enhancement
Committee, as well as having represented the ACC on the NCAA Management
Council.
Both Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal and the Chronicle of Higher
Education have cited Yow as being one of the 20 most influential people in
college athletics. She was selected to serve on the President’s U.S. Department
of Education Commission on Opportunities in Athletics to review the
status of Federal Title IX regulations. She earlier served as the chair of the
Atlantic Coast Conference Committee on Television, which is charged with
overseeing the league’s TV contracts and other related broadcast issues.
Like her older sister, Yow has been inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall
of Fame.
Yow has written numerous articles and books on athletics management and
human behavior. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Elon University and a
master’s degree from Liberty University. She also has been awarded honorary
doctorates for professional achievement from Elon, Liberty and the United
States Sports Academy. She is married to Dr. William W. Bowden.
She moved to the University of Maryland in 1994 and in 2000 selected Ralph
Friedgen as football coach. Friedgen was named consensus National Coach of
the Year in 2001 after leading the Terps to the ACC championship and an appearance
in the Orange Bowl. In 2002, she brought in Brenda Frese, the 2002
Big Ten and AP National Coach of the Year, to guide the Terrapin women’s
basketball program. In 2006, Frese led Maryland to the NCAA championship.
Under her leadership, Maryland’s 27 varsity programs won a remarkable 20
national championships and consistently graduated student-athletes, including
an all-time high federal graduation rate of 80 percent. In 2009, the NCAA
News named Maryland as one of the Top 10 athletics programs in the nation.
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