Acorn

Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: John Reeves

John Reeves doesn't have a huge office in the middle of campus. There is no gold nameplate on his door and no secretary fielding his calls.

But the first commissioner of the newly formed Landmark Conference doesn't need any of that to do what he does best-promoting and supervising college athletics.

Though his office is near the edge of the Forest, located at the President's House, Reeves is far from distant from the needs of the Forest and its athletes.

"There a huge amount of cooperation and mutual respect between Drew administration and athletes," Reeves said. "There were 16 Student Athlete Advisory Committee members at our meeting in the fall. People are listening to them."

Reeves is no stranger to hard work. He majored in Physical Education at Montclair State University and got his master's degree at Pennsylvania State University. The job market was tough, but it wasn't long until Reeves got his big break.

"When I was 29, I heard about an opening at Drew University," Reeves said. "I've always thought Drew was special. It was a pristine place, it was the Forest and different from a lot of other campuses, and the buildings here, like Mead Hall, I absolutely loved the place." To his surprise, Reeves got the job, and was appointed as athletic director and head soccer coach, a position he served in from 1969 to 1981.

He took the valuable experience he garnered from the job with him to the University of Rochester.

"I worked at Rochester for seven years, with the football program there," Reeves said. "We had some success as a Division III institute, and formed the [University Athletic Association], which was one of the most widely dispersed divisions in the country-with schools from Carnegie Mellon [University] to Brandeis [University] to the University of California to [New York University]."

It was Reeves' first introduction to working in a conference, but it was far from the end of his career as an athletic director. Next, he moved to the State University of New York- ­­Stonybrook, where they had just finished the construction of a new sports facility.

From SUNY Stonybrook, Reeves moved on to Columbia University.

"I was interested in moving from Division I to Division III, and I worked there as the athletic director for twelve years." Under his direction, the athletic facilities at Columbia improved significantly, a fact which he was commended for upon his retirement in 2003.

Continued...

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