What does it look like when someone has watched college athletics change from the inside for more than thirty years — and still has something pointed to say about it?
In this session of the Leading the Pack Speaker Series, BIOS Director Peter Miller opens with a sweeping overview of college athletics history before turning to the longest-tenured coach in UW Athletics for a response. What follows is a frank, wide-ranging, and often funny conversation about where college sports have been, where they’re going, and what actually matters when you’ve been at the same program long enough to have a real opinion.
Chris Clark has been at Wisconsin since 1994 — first as an assistant, then as head coach of the men’s rowing program, and now as Director of Rowing, overseeing both programs. He has coached at the Olympic level, watched the sport evolve from hand-me-down gear to state-of-the-art facilities, and raised three sons through youth and collegiate athletics. He is also, by his own admission, a man who reads five newspapers a day and has a hard time keeping his opinions to himself, which makes him exactly the kind of guest this series was built for.
“No matter what the data says — it’s all super important — but who,” Clark says. “You’ve got to get better people all the time. That’s what it’s about.”
About Chris Clark
Chris Clark is Director of Rowing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, overseeing both the men’s and women’s programs. He joined the Badger staff as an assistant men’s rowing coach in 1994 and became head coach in 1996. Over more than three decades leading the program, he built Wisconsin into one of the most decorated programs in collegiate rowing, winning the IRA national championship in 2008 and the Ten Eyck Trophy — awarded to the top overall program at the IRA national competition — five times between 1997 and 2002. His crews have earned 55 total IRA medals. He was named the 2002 Independent Rowing News College Coach of the Year and the 2002 and 2008 EARC Heavyweight Coach of the Year. At the international level, Clark coached the U.S. men’s eight to gold at the 1996 Under-23 World Championships, the U.S. men’s four with coxswain to gold at the 1999 World Championships, and the U.S. men’s eight to gold at the 1999 Pan American Games. He was named the 1997 U.S. Olympic Committee Developmental Coach of the Year. As an athlete, he was a member of the U.S. National Rowing Team, earning a silver medal at the 1983 Pan American Games. He attended Orange Coast College, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. He later rowed with the Oxford University Boat Race Crew and earned a diploma in social studies from University College Oxford. He and his wife Jane have three sons.