Bob Bowlsby wrestled at Waterloo West High School for legendary Hall of Fame coach Bob Siddens and at Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he was team captain and Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference champion. A lifelong advocate for wrestling, he served as the Chair of the NCAA Wrestling Committee, and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum’s Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame of Iowa’s Bowlsby Family Legacy Award is named in his family’s honor.

Throughout his career, Bob used his wrestling background, skill, expertise and leadership to help the programs he oversaw achieve growth and financial success. He retired in 2022 after 10 years as commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. Under his leadership, the Big 12 won 32 national team championships, including an all-time high eight national titles in 2021-22, and 175 NCAA individual event crowns.

Bob led several major changes in Big 12 membership, including the addition of Texas Christian University and West Virginia University. Most recently, he guided the addition of future members BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston. He also finalized one of the most lucrative television deals in college athletics and oversaw the expansion of the existing ESPN rights agreement with the 2019 debut of Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

He played a key role in the formation of the College Football Playoff that began in 2014-15, the first postseason playoff in the history of the sport. Prior to his role at the Big 12, Bowlsby spent six years directing a Stanford University athletics department that sponsored 35 varsity sports and claimed an unprecedented 17 consecutive Learfield Sports Directors Cups, emblematic of the top overall athletics program in the country.

Previously, Bob served 15 years as the director of athletics for the University of Iowa. In his final four years, he guided and supervised the merger of the Hawkeye men’s and women’s athletic departments that included 24 varsity sports. Prior to Iowa, he was director of athletics seven years at the University of Northern Iowa.

A national leader in intercollegiate and amateur athletics, Bob served on the United States Olympic Committee from 2007 to 2014 and also for two years in the 1990s. He was named National Athletics Director of the Year in 2004 and served as a member of the Commission on Opportunities in Athletics. He served as president of the NCAA Division I-A Athletics Directors’ Association, chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and chaired the NCAA Management Council. He received the MSU Moorhead Alumni Achievement Award and was inducted into the Dragon Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the University of Northern Iowa Hall of Fame in 2007.

For his massive achievements in leading collegiate athletics to new heights and for his dedicated support of the sport of wrestling, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame recognized Bob Bowlsby with its Outstanding American Award for 2023.