Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series looking at those who are and have been in charge of Ohio athletics.
This July marks the nine-year anniversary of Thomas Boeh taking over as Ohio director of athletics.
OU president Robert Glidden wrote in an e-mail that Boeh's vision for the athletic department at Ohio fell in line with what resources he had to use.
Thomas Boeh had a realistic sense about what developments were needed to make intercollegiate athletics feasible at a university such as Ohio in which the program is not self-supporting
Glidden said.
Boeh came to Ohio in 1995 after having worked at several schools, including Northwestern and Illinois.
That breadth of experience gives him a broader viewpoint about both the role and the operating styles of intercollegiate athletics programs Glidden said.
In Boeh's tenure, Ohio's revenue sports, football and men's basketball have seen mixed success.
On the gridiron, the highs have been high - 7-4 in 2000 and 8-3 in 1997.
The Bobcats also have experienced three seasons in the Boeh era in which they won two or less games.
We need to build (the football program) get it to where it can take the next step
and then take that next step and there's some things we'll have to do to get there
Boeh said. It's not easy here. We have different academic standards than other schools
even in our league.
The basketball program has been another roller coaster. Ohio has finished above .500 in six of Boeh's first eight seasons, but the Bobcats are sitting at 9-15 this season.
After replacing Larry Hunter in March 2001 with current coach Tim O'Shea, Boeh said things are looking up as the locker room now is filled with O'Shea's players.
There's bright spots there
but we didn't have the kind of success that anybody wanted. It didn't come together
whatever reason it was
Boeh said. Now we're entering a phase where this is clearly Coach O'Shea's team. It's his players that he recruited
and as those players mature
I fully expect us to be very competitive again.
Since 1995, Ohio has seen success in some Olympic sports. The Ohio field hockey team has reached the finals of the conference tournament four years running. In 2001, Ohio coach Shelly Morris, hired by Boeh in 1999, guided the Bobcats to their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Ohio volleyball team has seen a similar rise. In 2003, first-year coach Geoff Carlston led Ohio to its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
Boeh has seen a birth of one female program and rebirth of two female programs in his tenure, as well. In 1997 the Ohio soccer team started.
A year earlier, in 1996, the women's golf team resurfaced after a 23-year hiatus. In 1999, the Ohio lacrosse program returned.
He's been super supportive
