University of Wisconsin Associate Athletic Director for External Relations
Justin Doherty is a former CoSIDA president and was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame this past June during the 2013 COSIDA Convention in Orlando.
Doherty was recipient of the CoSIDA Arch Ward Award (an annual recognition of the top Division I athletics communication professional) in 2011 and has a legacy of tremendous service to CoSIDA. As a member of the CoSIDA Board of Directors for 10 years, he served as CoSIDA president in 2009-2010 and has been a big proponent of the growth and strategic initiatives of the organization.
The
Wisconsin State Journal profiled Doherty in the Q&A below which ran in its "Know Your Madisonian" feature on August 22. You can follow Doherty on Twitter (
@JDatWisconsin).
Read more:
Know Your Madisonian: Justin Doherty, by Andy Baggott,
Wisconsin State Journal
Justin Doherty began working in the
University of Wisconsin Athletic Department nearly 19 years ago and gradually moved from the periphery of the sports information staff to a front-line administrator.
It’s a process defined by a lesson he learned while getting a journalism degree at Michigan State in 1988. Doherty said former Spartans football coach George Perles had a mantra: “Work hard, keep your mouth shut and good things will happen.’’
“I feel like largely that’s what I’ve tried to do,’’ Doherty said. “I feel that is what has happened to me.”
Doherty began at UW as associate sports information director. Now he’s the associate athletic director for external relations, a role that involves serving as spokesman for UW Athletics, overseeing ?communications as well as branding and trademark licensing and serving as liaison to the Big Ten Network. Doherty, 47, also is the administrator for men’s basketball and the men’s and women’s soccer programs.
When UW athletic director Barry Alvarez promoted Doherty to the senior staff in 2011, he offered more advice: “Come in. Do your job.’’
This year, Doherty was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame. That honor can be traced to his involvement with the organization – 10 years on the board of directors and one as president – but he also produced numerous award-winning publications for UW and has published four books pertaining to Badgers athletics.
Q: What’s the biggest misconception ?about the UW Athletic Department?
A: We’re at a university and ultimately we’re trying to help student-athletes grow and get a degree and go out into the world and become good representatives of the university and the athletic department. That’s really central to so much of what we do. Around that mission are … financial needs. I guess the bottom line (is) the vast majority of the money generated here goes right back to that mission for the student-athletes. I think sometimes there’s a lot of emphasis placed on the financial end of it. There’s good reason for that, but also there is a mission, and it’s about helping our kids.
Q: What’s the lesson from the Johnny Manziel saga — the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Texas A&M allegedly getting paid to sign autographs in violation of NCAA rules — for someone in your role?
A: If there are rules in place, then we need to follow the rules. If we want to change the rules, the schools have the power to change them.
Q: What constitutes a good day for you?
A: One of the good things about my job is you never know what’s going to happen. You can have your to-do list and by 8:30 in the morning it’s disappeared, gone up in smoke because something’s happened. Somebody got hired. This thing happened nationally, whatever goes on. So many people care about sports in our country and locally about UW Athletics. It’s fun to be somewhere where a lot of people care about it. Combine that with the fact that you don’t know what’s going to happen. I tell people it’s never boring.
Q: Where does being inducted in the CoSIDA Hall of Fame rank on your list of memorable things to happen in your career?
A: It’s high up there. I don’t know that that’s a thing that anybody puts down as a goal, “I want to get into the Hall of Fame.” I think it’s a result of Barry’s advice. Come in. Do your job. You try to do that and hopefully you do a good job and hopefully, in some cases, people recognize it and that’s what’s happened.
Q: If you could trade places with any person in the athletic department, who would it be?
A: I can tell you whose job I wouldn’t want. That would be (compliance director) Katie (Smith). That’s an interesting question. I’ll say (men’s hockey coach) Mike Eaves because I love hockey. I don’t think I could do half as good a job as he does, but I love the sport and I think it would be fun just to be around it on a day-to-day basis.