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Ron Wellman, Director of Athletics
Ron Wellman, the dean of athletics directors in the Atlantic Coast Conference, has elevated the Wake Forest University athletics program to its greatest level in school history. Since being named to the position in October, 1992, he has helped lead Wake's teams to unprecedented success both on the field and off. Under Wellman's leadership, Wake Forest has won four national championships during his tenure and finished 23rd in the 2007 NACDA Director's Cup standings, its highest finish ever. Wellman is only the fifth person to assume the top position in the athletic department at Wake Forest during the modern era of intercollegiate sports, following Pat Preston, Jim Weaver, Bill Gibson and Dr. Gene Hooks, Wake Forest's athletic director from 1964 through 1992. Entering his 18th year in 2009-10, Wellman has played a large role in the shaping of intercollegiate athletics on a regional and national level. A recent appointee to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship committee, he has previously served on the NCAA Division I Management Council and chaired the NCAA Baseball Committee. Wellman is a former president of the Division I-A Athletic Directors' Association and has served on the NCAA Diversity Leadership Strategic Planning Committee and chaired the NCAA Baseball Academic Enhancement Committee. During the 2008-09 year, Wake Forest had three teams ascend to a No. 1 national ranking including the men's basketball team, men's soccer team and the field hockey team. The soccer and field hockey teams each reached the final four of their respective sports. The 2008-09 season featured the Demon Deacon football team making a third straight bowl appearance, a first in school history. Both the men's and women's basketball teams were selected for postseason competition and Michael Bingham won the national championship in the 400 meters at the NCAA indoor track and field championships. Overall, Wake Forest athletics has never been more prominent on the national scene. The football program is in the midst of its most successful tenure in school history, having won 28 games over the last three seasons. The men's soccer program has been to three straight College Cups while field hockey has appeared in nine straight final fours. The men's and women's golf programs are perennial postseason contenders and both the men's and women's tennis teams have been ranked among the top teams in the country over the last two seasons. Wellman's efforts in leading this rise to prominence have not gone unnoticed. In 2007-08, Wellman was honored by two organizations. Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal named him College Athletic Director of the Year. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) selected Wellman as its AstroTurf AD of the Year for the Southeast Region--the second time in his career he has received that honor. In the fall of 2007, the Wake Forest men's soccer team defeated Ohio State in the College Cup to win its first national championship. The Deacon field hockey team made its eighth consecutive appearance in the Final Four, and both the men's and women's tennis teams made the NCAA Tournament to highlight Wake Forest's spring season. Those accomplishments came on the heels of unprecedented success across the board in 2006-07. Wake Forest finished 23rd in the NACDA Director's Cup, which awards points based on each schools' performance on the field. The finish was the highest ever for the Deacons. Off the playing fields, Wellman has spearheaded an effort to enhance the overall development of the student-athlete. He asks his coaches to stress academics and he has instituted programs to assist and develop student-athletes away from competition such as the annual Academic Excellence Banquet, a campus-wide affair which honors those student-athletes who have achieved in the classroom. Another obvious sign of the progress Wake Forest has made -- and is continuing to make -- under Wellman's leadership is the ambitious facility improvement program that the athletic department has undertaken. The football stadium, BB&T Field, continues to receive multiple phases of cosmetic and structural changes. Prior to the start of the 2006 season, a brick façade was added to the interior of the stands, and a new state-of-the-art FieldTurf surface was installed. In January, 2007, after an aggressive fund-raising campaign, coupled with generous donations of supporters, the 35-plus year-old press box was imploded and construction on the new, spacious Deacon Tower began. Deacon Tower opened to rave reviews in August, 2008 and offers a number of premium seating options, accommodations for the media as well as a main entry point for the stadium. Born in Celina, Ohio, he earned his undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team. After receiving a master's from Bowling Green, he joined the faculty and coaching staff at Elmhurst (IL) College in 1971, serving as head baseball coach, assistant basketball and football coach and associate professor of health and physical education. He compiled a 210-136 record in baseball before leaving to become the head baseball coach at Northwestern University. In five seasons with the Wildcats, Wellman's teams posted a 180-97 record and 15 players signed professional contracts. Among those moving to the Major Leagues was Joe Girardi, an Academic All-America catcher who became the manager of the New York Yankees in 2007. Wellman and his wife Linda have three daughters -- Angie, who works for the Winston-Salem Dash (White Sox A affiliate) and is married to Tim Lynde, a WFU alumnus and former basketball manager who is with International Sports Properties in Winston-Salem; Nicole, a pediatrician, and her husband, Kevin Rice, a former captain of WFU's men's soccer team, who live in Winston-Salem; and Melissa, a teacher, and her husband, Ben Norman, an attorney, who live in Greensboro. There are seven Wake Forest degrees between the Wellman's daughters and their husbands. The Wellmans are grandparents to grandsons Connor, 2 (Angie) and Cole, 3 and Sam, 1 (Nicole).
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