John Swofford

Now in his 20th year as Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner, John Swofford continues to make a dramatic impact on the ACC and throughout college athletics.

As the ACC’s longest-tenured commissioner, Swofford has been part of the conference for nearly five decades as a student-athlete and administrator.

A native of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and a two-year all-state quarterback at Wilkes Central High, Swofford remains the only player to have his number retired by the school after earning Most Valuable Players honors in football, basketball and track.

After being recruited by numerous schools to play football, Swofford attended the University of North Carolina on a Morehead Scholarship as part of head coach Bill Dooley’s first recruiting class. In addition to earning a spot on the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll as a student-athlete, he started at quarterback as a sophomore and part of his junior year, and then finished his career as a defensive back for UNC’s 1971 ACC Championship team. He played in the Peach Bowl as a junior and the Gator Bowl as a senior.

Swofford received his Masters in Athletics Administration from the University of Ohio. His first job in college athletics came at the University of Virginia – where he worked under future ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan – before returning to North Carolina. In 1980, at the age of 31, Swofford was named the athletics director at his alma mater. He held that post for 17 years, a period in which North Carolina claimed more ACC and NCAA Championships than during any athletics director’s tenure in ACC history, and claimed the 1994 Sears Directors’ Cup, awarded to the top overall athletic program in the nation. Swofford also hired six head coaches that went on to win national championships – five at North Carolina, and football coach Mack Brown at the University of Texas.

As Commissioner, Swofford has successfully guided the Atlantic Coast Conference through turbulent times in college athletics and has led the league’s expansion from nine to 15 teams. Under his leadership, the ACC has remained in the forefront as a leader in college athletics. During his first 19 years as Commissioner, ACC teams have won 77 national titles.

Swofford was a leading advocate for NCAA legislation approved in January of 2015 that allows Autonomy 5 conferences to better address the needs of their institutions, athletic programs and student-athletes. In April of 2013, Swofford and the leadership of the ACC’s member institutions spearheaded a grant of rights agreement that helped stabilize the college athletic landscape and further secured the league’s position as one of the nation’s premier conferences.

Swofford oversaw creation of the ACC Football Championship Game and played a key role in the evolution of the postseason structure to today’s College Football Playoff. ACC bowl affiliations have been tremendously enhanced under his watch, and in 2012 he negotiated a robust multi-year television contract with ESPN.

He was instrumental in starting the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, now an early-season staple for both men’s and women’s college basketball. He created the ACC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in 1999 and launched the ACC Community Outreach Program.

Swofford is a member of four Halls of Fame – the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame; the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame; the Chick-fil-A Bowl Hall of Fame; and the Wilkes County Hall of Fame. He has been awarded the Corbett Award, which is the highest administrative honor given nationally to a collegiate athletic administrator. Swofford has received the Homer Rice Award from the Division 1A Athletic Directors’ Association, is a recipient of the Ohio University Distinguished Alumnus Award, and received one of Greensboro’s 2011 Father of the Year Awards.

Swofford and his wife, Nora, reside in Greensboro, North Carolina. Together, they have three children – Autumn, who is married to Sherman Wooden; Chad, who is married to Caitlyn, and Amie, who is married to Mike Caudle. Autumn and Sherman have three children (Maya, Lyla and Lincoln), while Amie and Mike have one child (Emerson).