From football legends Vince Lombardi and Wellington Mara to baseball Hall of Fame announcer Vince Scully, Fordham University athletics has had a rich history since the school was founded nearly 200 years ago.
As college sports has entered the inevitable era of student-athletes receiving monetary compensation through name, image and likeness (NIL), the leadership of Fordham has entrusted Charles Guthrie, who they hired as the school’s new director of intercollegiate athletics and recreation last November, to navigate the complexities of the business sports, and elevate Fordham’s various programs to the upper echelon of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
The Albany, New York native, who holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in education administration and policy studies from the University of Albany, came to Fordham from his position as athletics director at Akron University. Following his first AD position at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, Guthrie served as AD at San Francisco State University, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay then Akron.
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He spoke with AmNews about, among other decisions and objectives, hiring Mike Magpayo as the new men’s basketball head coach and winning conference championships in all of the program’s sports. “Our former coach (Keith Urgo) was a great family man, but at the end of the day, when I took over this role, it was very clear to me from everyone that was involved in the search that they wanted to go and try to win the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship,” he said. “I feel like Coach Mike (who became the first NCAA Division I head coach of full Asian heritage) is going to put us in a good position to try to cut down the nets and deliver on a promise many people have been waiting for since 1992.”
Guthrie was referring to the year the Rams last won a conference title, when they were a member of the Patriot League, and made it to the NCAA tournament. “When you look at our portfolio and think about cutting down the nets or dog pile, it’s all about the Atlantic 10, so I want to preface that,” he shared. “Far too often in college athletics has become a place where everyone thinks they can compete for a national championship, and they forget about competing for a conference championship, and so one of the things I want to do is focus on winning the Atlantic 10 across the board.” Guthrie noted a primary collective objective of the athletics department is growing the programs to have year over year success defined by competing for and achieving A-10 titles. “Softball has been a dominant program here for like the last 20 years,” he said, with the team advancing to the regional round of the 2022 NCAA Division I softball tournament. “I imagine they are getting close to winning the Atlantic 10 championship. Believe it or not, our women’s tennis team is in first place, and they have a good chance to win the Atlantic 10 Conference championship and go to the NCAA (tournament).”
The team will face Saint Joseph’s on Saturday then play in the Atlantic 10 Championship to be held in Orlando, Florida, April 24-27. “Our water polo team, as you saw, went to the semifinal,” Guthrie said of a group that was 32-1 last season before losing to USC in the national NCAA tournament in December. “When we think about a possible national championship, that is the one sport in our portfolio where I believe they could win a national championship.” Guthrie’s charge is also to develop excellent scholars that represent Fordham. With high academic and character standards, he has set a course that he hopes will elevate the Rams into a leading destination for some of the world’s top student-athletes.